{"id":113,"date":"2015-12-06T16:01:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T20:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/?p=113"},"modified":"2017-04-06T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:30:00","slug":"a-christmas-hymn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/?p=113","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Hymn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987,<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_119\" style=\"width: 181px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119\" class=\" wp-image-119\" src=\"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Wilbur\" width=\"171\" height=\"173\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Wilbur<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989. He uses everyday experiences to illuminate his large body of work. He also wrote the lyrics for several songs in Leonard Bernstein\u2019s 1956 musical \u201cCandide,\u201d including \u201cGlitter and Be Gay\u201d and \u201cMake Our Garden Grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also in the 50\u2019s, composer Richard Winslow asked his friend, Wilbur, to write a hymn to be performed at a Wesleyan University Christmas concert. The result was \u201cA Christmas Hymn\u201d or \u201cA stable-lamp is lighted.\u201d Using a line from the New Testament book of Luke, he included the repeated line \u201cAnd every stone shall cry.\u201d In an interview, Wilbur said, \u201cIf you write a hymn and are serious about it, you have no business filling in with maverick notions of your own. A hymn has to be perfectly orthodox&#8230;It is a great challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He obviously met that challenge for since its publication, the hymn has been adopted by the Episcopal, Lutheran and other churches. It was also included in the University\u2019s 43rd Annual Service of Lessons and Carols on December 7. Sung by the Women\u2019s Chorale, the hauntingly beautiful melody was the perfect accompaniment to Wilbur\u2019s stirring words.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-120\" src=\"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur2-219x300.jpg\" alt=\"wilbur2\" width=\"129\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur2-219x300.jpg 219w, https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/wilbur2.jpg 234w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px\" \/><\/a>There is a copy of The Poems of Richard Wilbur in the Rare Book Room, \u201cinscribed with pleasure for the Boatwright Memorial Library\u201d by the author. It includes \u201cA Christmas Hymn\u201d and many other wonderful poems. Come take a look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, &nbsp; and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989. He uses everyday experiences to illuminate his large body of work. He also wrote [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rare-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9qn1s-1P","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarebooks.urlibraries.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}