Mad Song describes a person who can still his grief only in sleep. During the day, he feels persecuted by all kinds of imaginary dangers: the wild weeping winds, the sunrise and the dawn scorning the earth; they strike his ear at night and make him weep during the day. The piano part colours his madness in a steady rising crescendo with several striking changes between the shrill high, and stormy deep registers. After the final exclamation: "I turn my back to the east, for light doth seize my brain with frantic pain" the piano still continues in a furiously rising line until it reaches a boundlessly mad dynamic climax.