"Mad Tom's Song" appears in many anthologies of English poetry "The Rattle Bag," editors, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, being one, and the author is always listed as Anonymous. The version in the Rattle Bag is given as "a version by Robert Graves." "Tom O'Bedlams Song" is regarded as one of the greatest Elizabthan anoymous poems.That said, I believe this is a Broadside ballad from the 1700's. Bedlam was a lunatic asylum or more properly a prison, in London. Bedlam is a contraction of Bethelehem after the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopgate founded in 1247. It began to receive lunatics in 1377. It was given to the city of London by Henry VIII in 1547. In 1676 it was transferred to Moorfields and became one of the sights of London where "for twopence anyone might gaze at the poor wretches and bait them" It was a place for (sexual) assignation and one of the disgraces of 17C London. "All that I can say of Bedlam is this: 'tis an almshouse for madness, a showing room for harlots, a sure market for lechers, a dry walk for loiterers" (The London Spy 1698)In 1815 Bedlam was moved to St Georges Fields, Lambeth, the present site of the Imperial War Museuem when in 1931 the occupants were moved to West Wickham. A "Tom 0'Bedlam" is a mendicant who levies charity opon the plea of insanity. In the 16c and 17c many harmless inmates of Bedlam were let out to beg and such a beggar was known as an Abram-Man. The content of the poem is concerned with the delusions of Mad Tom. Incidentally, Robert Graves is worth checking out for his restoration of a 17C fragmentary text sung by English North Country Witches at their Sabbaths, called "The Allansford Pursuit."