[Maryann Corbett]

I just got the following question from my choir director.

We're going to be singing a setting of Richard Wilbur's poem that begins "A stable lamp is lighted..." In the edition we have, a line reads "for stony hearts of men" which is the way I remember it from reading and previous singing.

On the internet, the director has also found a version with a line that reads "for thorny hearts of men" and she likes that better. I'm arguing vigorously against it, but better than argument is textual evidence.

Does anybody own the earlier collection where the poem originally appeared? (Sorry not to identify it here; my collected Wilbur is at home.) Can anybody testify that the line has, or hasn't, always read "stony" in versions approved by the author?

Thank you!

Maryann

[Michael Cantor]

Maryann -

The poem is A Christmas Hymm, and it appeared in Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems (1961). In my copy of New and Collected Poems (Harcourt Brace, 1989) the line reads, "For stony hearts of men". (See my PM)

Michael

Added: I also found it in Collected Poems 1943 - 2004 (Harcourt/Harvest, 2006) and the line is the same.

[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited November 28, 2006).]

[Maryann Corbett]

Exactly the answer I need. Thanks SO much, Michael. Now that I see this, I don't need the scanned version you offer in your PM, so please disregard my return PM.

Grazie,
Maryann

[Clive Watkins]

Dear Maryann

The latest edition of his poems to have been supervised directly by Wilbur is the UK edition published by the Waywiser Press in 2005. This updates and corrects the previous Harcourt edition, which is faulty in several respects. (I had a hand in preparing the edition, which was checked by three proof-readers and by Wilbur.)

In the Waywiser edition the line in question reads “For stony hearts of men”, which in this case agrees with Harcourt. (It also agrees with the New and Collected of 1988.)

I hope this is helpful.

Kind regards…

Clive

[Maryann Corbett]

I knew that this was the place to ask this question and get definitive answers! Clive, thanks so much.

Maryann