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by Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900)

There was a man with tongue of wood
Language: English 
There was a man with tongue of wood
Who essayed to sing,
And in truth it was lamentable.
But there was one who heard
The clip-clapper of this tongue of wood
And knew what the man
Wished to sing,
And with that the singer was content.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900), no title, appears in War Is Kind and Other Lines, no. 16, first published 1899 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by N. Barrett-Thomas , "Tongue of wood", published 1970 [ alto and piano ], from Songs of Singing [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Jack Arthur Boyd (b. 1932), "A tongue of wood", published 1968 [ soprano and SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961), "There was a man with tongue of wood", op. 21 no. 6 (1987) [ baritone and piano ], from Final Songs, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by David Sisco , "There was a man with a tongue of wood", 1999 [ baritone and piano ], from Five Stephen Crane Poems, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Paul Zonn (b. 1938), "There was a man with tongue", 1967 [ unaccompanied contralto ], from 3 Folk Songs of Stephen Crane [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2004-02-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 46

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