by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
When you are sad
Language: English
When you are sad, The mother of the stars weeps too, And all her starlight is with sorrow mad, And tears of fire fall gently in the dew. When you are sad, The mother of the wind mourns too, And her old wind that no mirth ever had, Wanders and wails before my heart most true. When you are sad, The mother of the wave sighs too, And her dim wave bids man be no more glad, And then the whole world’s trouble weeps with you.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), appears in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics, first published 1892 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "When you are sad", copyright © 2002 [ soprano and strings ], from Two Sad Songs, no. 1, confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2020-04-03
Line count: 12
Word count: 86