For the first edition in 1894 Couperus received 200 guilders and the poems by that time had already been published in a number of Dutch newspapers and magazines.

[2] However Couperus had some difficulty to get the poem Williswinde published, as he wrote in a letter to a colleague, Smit Kleine.

In a review in the Algemeen Handelsblad a critic wrote: it is a pity that Couperus begins most of his verses with "wandered", "exercised", "since" and "exulted".

[5] The Soerabaijasch Handelsblad wrote in April 1896: The title "Williswinde" sounds like a soft birdsong.

[9] A parody of Williswinde was later published in the Dutch magazine "De Kroniek"; during that time editor in chief was writer Frans Coenen, who, later in time became, together with Couperus, editor of the Dutch magazine "Groot Nederland".