Thornton Wilder - "Our Town"

Author, Poet, Playwright Thornton Wilder

Iris Dement - Our Town

Our Town
Song by Iris DeMent ‧ 1992

And you know the sun's settin' fast
And just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'Cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
Goodnight

Up the street beside that red neon light
That's where I met my baby on one hot summer night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here
But you know the sun's settin' fast

And just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'Cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
Goodnight

It's here I had my baby's and I had my first kiss
I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
It turned over once but then it never went far

And I can see the sun settin' fast
And just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'Cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
Goodnight

I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall
I bring them flowers about every day
But I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say

If they could see how the sun's settin' fast
And just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'Cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
Goodnight

Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly
But I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes
I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't want to go
I love you my town, you'll always live in my soul

But I can see the sun's settin' fast
And just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I gotta kiss you goodbye but I'll hold to my lover
'Cause my heart's 'bout to die
Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on my town, on my town
Goodnight, goodnight

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Iris Dement
Our Town lyrics © ME Gusta Music

Author, Poet, Playwright Thornton Wilder

Comparing Thornton Wilder's

The Bridge of San Luis Rey & Our Town

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by Tappan Wilder

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts

Our Town

The fame and wealth that Thornton Wilder received from his fiction—especially The Bridge of San Luis Rey—allowed him to return his attention to his first love, theater.

During his years of writing novels, he experimented with one-acts such as The Long Christmas Dinner, The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, and Pullman Car Hiawatha—all plays that embody some of the themes and techniques in Our Town. His full-length play The Trumpet Shall Sound was produced off-Broadway in 1926, and by the 1930s, he had turned his attention to play translations such as Lucrèce (1932) and adaptations such as A Doll’s House (1937).

On January 22, 1938, the first performance of Our Town took place at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. The first New York performance occurred less than two weeks later, a now-famous production at the Henry Miller Theatre directed by Jed Harris. Now, more than seventy years later, it is said that a production of Our Town is performed somewhere in the world every night.

What is so special about Our Town, a play often heralded as the great American drama, and which made Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, an internationally famous address?

“Our Town” is Anytown, U.S.A., but it is not in any way a historical reflection of small-town life. The townspeople know many pleasures: seeing the sun rise over the mountain, noticing the birds, watching for the change of seasons. Wilder himself said that the play "is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire village; or as a speculation about conditions of life after death... It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily life.”  

The audience encounters these events through the point of view of the Stage Manager—a character in the play who functions as the narrator and a sympathetic director. While he sometimes talks directly to the actors, he maintains his distance. Most of his lines are delivered as an address to the audience. He freely says they are watching a play written so “people a thousand years from now” will know that “this is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.”

The opening stage directions are clear and radical, especially for 1938: “No curtain. No scenery.” The costumes are simple; the lighting instructions, complex. The three acts mostly follow two characters, Emily Webb and George Gibbs, who go to school together in Act I, marry in Act II, and experience tragedy in Act III.

Our Town marked the beginning of Wilder’s success in the dramatic arts. He would go on to win his second Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), write the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and write The Matchmaker (1955)—which would later bring him even more renown when it became the musical Hello, Dolly! (1964).

But perhaps the sometimes overlooked complexity of Our Town keeps audiences mesmerized year after year. In Emily's final epiphany—[the] wisdom she has learned through suffering—we seem to hear Thornton Wilder's voice speak to us: "Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."

Major Characters: Our Town

The Stage Manager is the play’s narrator, who both directs the play and addresses the audience. Always descriptive, sometimes didactic, often funny, he begins the play on May 7, 1901, and ends it twelve years later in the summer of 1913.

The Webb Family

Mr. Webb is the publisher and editor of the town newspaper, the Grover’s Corners Sentinel.  

Mrs. Webb’s dour demeanor contrasts with her beautiful garden of sunflowers and her maternal devotion.

Emily, the brightest girl in Grover’s Corners, dreams of living an extraordinary life. In Act II, she marries George Gibbs after realizing that his opinion means more to her than anyone else’s.

Wally, the Webb’s youngest child, dies after his appendix bursts while on a Boy scout camping trip.

The Gibbs Family

Dr. Gibbs is the town doctor. He will die in 1930; the new hospital will be named after him. 

Mrs. Gibbs, Dr. Gibbs’s wife, dies from pneumonia during a visit to Ohio.  Even as a teenager, George Gibbs wants to be a farmer and marry Emily.

Rebecca Gibbs, George’s older sister, marries and leaves Grover’s Corners for Ohio.

Other Townspeople

When the play begins, Joe Crowell is the town’s 11-year old newsboy. He later gets a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Simon Stimson, the organist at church who secretly drinks too much, “has seen a pack of trouble.” 

"Our Town" by Thornton Wilder is not a poem, but a play. The play is a three-act exploration of life, love, and death in the fictional small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. While it doesn't have a poem within the text, it's known for its philosophical dialogues and lyrical prose, particularly in the moments of reflection and contemplation.

Here's a more detailed look at "Our Town" and why it's not a poem.

What "Our Town" is

• A Play: "Our Town" is a drama written by Thornton Wilder, not a collection of poems.

• A Philosophical Exploration: The play delves into universal themes of life, love, death, and the meaning of existence, rather than focusing on poetic imagery or rhythm.

• A Unique Theatrical Experience: It's known for its minimalist set design, the use of a Stage Manager who narrates and interacts with the audience, and the way it allows the audience to connect with the characters on a deep emotional level.

• A Celebration of Ordinary Life:
• The play explores the beauty and importance of the everyday moments of life, emphasizing the value of simple relationships and the human experience.

Key Themes in "Our Town"

• The Preciousness of Life: Emily Webb's reflection on her life after death highlights the importance of appreciating the present moment and the fleeting nature of time.

• The Importance of Connection: The play emphasizes the power of human connection and the bonds of family, friendship, and love.

• The Nature of Love: George and Emily's love story serves as a microcosm of the complexities and joys of romantic love.

• The Cycle of Life: The play portrays the journey of life from birth to death, from childhood to adulthood, and from love to loss.

Why it's not a Poem: While the play contains moments of lyrical beauty and poetic language, it is not structured as a poem.

•  It has: A Narrative Structure: The play follows a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

• Characters and Dialogue: The play is driven by the interactions and conversations of its characters.

• A Dramatic Setting: The play takes place in a specific setting, Grover's Corners, and at a particular time period.

In short, "Our Town" is a powerful and moving play that explores the depths of the human experience through the lens of ordinary life in a small town, but it is not a collection of poems.

Author, Poet, Playwright Thornton Wilder

Emily Webb's Soliloquy at the end of "Our Town"

Emily: I can’t bear it. They’re so young and beautiful. Why did they ever have to get old? Mama, I’m here. I’m grown up. I love you all, everything. – I can’t look at everything hard enough. Oh, Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me.

Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I’m dead. You’re a grandmother, Mama. I married George Gibbs, Mama. Wally’s dead, too. Mama, his appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it – don’t you remember?

But, just for a moment now we’re all together. Mama, just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s look at one another.

I can’t. I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. All that was going on in life, and we never noticed. Take me back – up the hill – to my grave.

But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover’s Corners. Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking. And Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths. And sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? – every, every minute?

Stage Manager: No. The saints and poets, maybe they do some.

Emily: I’m ready to go back. I should have listened to you. That’s all human beings are! Just blind people.

- Thornton Wilder