"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti


[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Thornton Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey




The Bridge of San Luis Rey
 by Thornton Wilder

The themes of The Bridge of San Luis Rey may be of love, loss, obsession, and the search for the meaning in life, particularly in the face of tragedy. Wilder examines how these themes intertwine and impact individuals, both through their relationships with others and in their own internal struggles. The novel also delves into the concepts of freewill, fate, and the existence of a divine plan. - The Internet

 

Comparing Thornton Wilder's
The Bridge of San Luis Rey & Our Town

by Tappan Wilder
Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts

Introduction

Wilder Thornton Wilder’s novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and his stage drama Our Town (1938) have enjoyed enormous success since the moment they first appeared. Both won Pulitzer Prizes, and neither has ever been out of print. Because they have been widely read or performed abroad, this novel and play are not only American classics but classics of world literature as well. They are so well known, in fact, that we easily take them for granted. Whether you are rediscovering Wilder’s work or entering his world for the first time, you are joining thousands of his readers in exploring the fundamental meaning of human existence.

At first glance, these two stories may appear to be worlds apart. Our Town is set between 1901 and 1913 in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a community that has produced nobody very “important.” Wilder wrote that his subject was “the trivial details of human life in reference to a vast perspective of time, of social history and of religious ideas.” He was, he told us in an early preface to the play, presenting “the life of a village against the life of the stars.”  As Emily and others reflect on the meaning of their lives in their town, we may see our own experiences more clearly, wherever we live.

There is nothing ordinary about the backdrop of Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, or the characters in his story. The novel is set in Lima, Peru, in the golden age of the eighteenth-century Spanish colonial empire. Among the exotic cast of characters are the greatest actress of the age, a drunken Marquesa who can’t stop writing letters, an obsessed Harlequin named Uncle Pio, identical twins with a private language, and a legendary ship captain. Nor does the novel lack drama, starting with the very first sentence: “On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.”

As different as these two works are in form and setting, they pose the same enduring questions that Wilder explored throughout his writing career—often employing death as the window to life. He could well have written of The Bridge of San Luis Rey as he wrote of Our Town: “It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily life.” 

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

On a summer day in 1714, a bridge collapses in Peru, plunging five unsuspecting travelers to their deaths. Brother Juniper, a witness to the tragedy, dedicates himself to discovering why those five perished. Juniper’s work is judged heretical by the Inquisition and he and his findings are burned at the stake, but a secret copy survives. The narrator of The Bridge delves deeper into the lives of the victims: “Some say...that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.”

Thornton Wilder’s second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) had diverse inspirations. The book’s philosophical underpinnings are rooted in Wilder’s conversations with his father, a devoted churchman, and in a passage in the gospel of Luke that reads, “...those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?” Wilder often said that it is not the responsibility of a writer to answer a question but rather “to pose the question correctly and clearly.” Wilder later said, “The Bridge asked the question whether the intention that lies behind love was sufficient to justify the desperation of living.”

The action of the story has its origins in Wilder’s extensive reading of French literature, including the letters of Marquise de Sévigné and a short comic play by Prosper Mérimée, Le Carosse du Saint-Sacrement ("The Coach of the Blessed Sacrament" used to transport the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist in Catholic tradition) about a notorious affair between the Viceroy of Peru and a famous actress called La Perichole.

Wilder began the novel in July 1926 during a residency at the MacDowell Colony, a writer’s retreat in New Hampshire, and just a year later the book was heralded by critics as a “masterpiece” and a “triumph.” The public agreed. The book sold out almost immediately. By the time it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, it had already been through seventeen printings and had sold nearly 300,000 copies. The success of The Bridge allowed Wilder to resign his position at the Lawrenceville School to write and lecture full time. He used his royalties to build a home in Hamden, Connecticut, known as “The House The Bridge Built,” where he lived with his parents and sister Isabel.

Today, The Bridge remains a perennial favorite. Wilder’s novel continues to hold meaning for people the world over. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair read from The Bridge’s closing lines at a memorial service for British victims of the World Trade Center attack:

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

Major Characters: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Brother Juniper, a “little red-haired Franciscan from Northern Italy,” has come to Peru to convert Indians when he witnesses the collapse of the bridge. He believes that by examining the “secret lives of those five persons” he can prove that their deaths were not by chance, but part of God’s plan.

Doña María, Marquesa de Montemayor, is the laughingstock of Lima. Silly and often drunk, she pines for the love of her daughter, Doña Clara, who has married and moved to Spain. Her desperation finds expression in beautiful letters that show a deep sensitivity, a vivid intelligence, and a heart breaking for the smallest kindness.

Pepita is an orphan brought up by “that strange genius of Lima,” Abbess Madre María del Pilar, before being sent to live in the Marquesa’s palace. While Pepita pities the Marquesa, she clings to “her sense of duty and her loyalty to her ‘mother in the lord,’ Mother María del Pilar.”

Camila Perichole is the greatest actress in Lima. Renowned for her beauty in her youth, she gains the favor of the court and the devotion of Uncle Pio. When her beauty is decimated by smallpox, she becomes reclusive. Although she refuses Uncle Pio’s help for herself, she entrusts to him her only son, Jaime, the bridge’s fifth victim.

Uncle Pio’s love of literature and culture is embodied in Camila Perichole, whom he trains as an actress. When his influence becomes overbearing, she rejects him. Years later, he still comes to her aid.

Esteban, another orphan raised by the Abbess, attempts suicide after the death of his twin brother, Manuel. He is setting out for a new life on the high seas when the bridge collapses and he falls to his death.

For the remainder of article go here: Thornton Wilder - "Our Town" 



The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey
First edition cover
AuthorThornton Wilder
IllustratorAmy Drevenstedt
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAlbert & Charles Boni
Publication date
1927
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages235

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel. It was first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and was the best-selling work of fiction that year.[1]

Premise

The Bridge of San Luis Rey tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge. A friar who witnesses the accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die.

Plot

Part One: Perhaps an Accident

The first few pages of the first chapter explain the book's basic premise: the story centers on a fictional event that happened in Peru on the road between Lima and Cuzco, at noon on Friday, July 20, 1714.[2] A rope bridge woven by the Inca a century earlier collapsed at that particular moment, while five people were crossing it, sending them falling from a great height to their deaths in the river below.[3] The collapse was witnessed by Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar who was on his way to cross the bridge himself. A deeply pious man who seeks to provide some sort of empirical evidence that might prove to the world God's Divine Providence, he sets out to interview everyone he can find who knew the five victims. Over the course of six years, he compiles a huge book of all of the evidence he gathers to show that the beginning and end of a person is all part of God's plan for that person. Part One foretells the burning of the book that occurs at the end of the novel, but it also says that one copy of Brother Juniper's book survives and is at the library of the University of San Marcos, where it now sits neglected.

Part Two: the Marquesa de Montemayor; Pepita

Part Two focuses on one of the victims of the collapse: Doña María, the Marquesa de Montemayor. The daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant, the Marquesa was an ugly child who eventually entered into an arranged marriage and bore a daughter, Clara, whom she loved dearly. Clara was indifferent to her mother, though, and became engaged to a Spanish man and moved across the ocean to Spain where she married. Doña María visits her daughter in Spain, but when they cannot get along, she returns to Lima. The only way that they can communicate comfortably is by letter, and Doña María pours her heart into her writing, which becomes so polished that her letters will be read in schools in the centuries after her lifetime.

Doña María takes as her companion Pepita, a girl raised at the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas. When she learns that her daughter is pregnant in Spain, Doña María decides to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa María de Cluxambuqua to pray that the baby will be healthy and loved. Pepita goes along as company and to supervise the staff. When Doña María is out at the shrine, Pepita stays at the inn and writes a letter to her patron, the Abbess María del Pilar, complaining about her misery and loneliness. Doña María sees the letter on the table when she gets back and reads it. Later, she asks Pepita about the letter, and Pepita says she tore it up because the letter was not brave. Doña María has new insight into the ways in which her own life and love for her daughter have lacked bravery. She writes her "first letter" (actually Letter LVI) of courageous love to her daughter, but two days later, returning to Lima, she and Pepita are on the bridge of San Luis Rey when it collapses.

Part Three: Esteban

Esteban and Manuel are twins who were left at the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas as infants. The Abbess of the convent, Madre María del Pilar, developed a fondness for them as they grew up. When they became older, they decided to be scribes. They are so close that they have developed a secret language that only they understand. Their closeness becomes strained when Manuel falls in love with Camila Perichole, a famous actress.

Perichole flirts with Manuel and swears him to secrecy when she retains him to write letters to her lover, the Viceroy. Esteban has no idea of their relationship until she turns up at the twins' room one night in a hurry and has Manuel write to a matador with whom she is having an affair. Esteban encourages his brother to follow her, but instead Manuel swears that he will never see her again. Later, Manuel cuts his knee on a piece of metal and it becomes infected. The surgeon instructs Esteban to put cold compresses on the injury: the compresses are so painful that Manuel curses Esteban, though he later remembers nothing of his curses. Esteban offers to send for Perichole, but Manuel refuses. Soon after, Manuel dies.

When the Abbess comes to prepare the body, she asks Esteban his name, and he says he is Manuel. Gossip about his ensuing strange behavior spreads all over town. He goes to the theater but runs away before the Perichole can talk to him; the Abbess also tries to talk to him, but he runs away, so she sends for Captain Alvarado.

Captain Alvarado, a well-known sailor and explorer, goes to see Esteban in Cuzco and hires him to sail the world with him, far from Peru. Esteban agrees, then refuses, then acquiesces if he can get all his pay in advance to buy a present for the Abbess before he departs. That night Esteban attempts suicide but is saved by Captain Alvarado. The Captain offers to take him back to Lima to buy the present, and at the ravine spanned by the bridge of San Luis Rey, the Captain goes down to a boat that is ferrying some materials across the water. Esteban goes to the bridge and is on it when it collapses.

Part Four: Uncle Pio; Don Jaime

Uncle Pio acts as Camila Perichole's valet, and, in addition, "her singing-master, her coiffeur, her masseur, her reader, her errand-boy, her banker; rumor added: her father." He was born the bastard son of a Madrid aristocrat and later traveled the world engaged in a wide variety of dubious, though legal, businesses, most related to being a go-between or agent of the powerful, including (briefly) conducting interrogations for the Inquisition. His life "became too complicated" and he fled to Peru. He came to realize that he had just three interests in the world: independence; the constant presence of beautiful women; and the masterpieces of Spanish literature, particularly those of the theater.

He finds work as the confidential agent of the Viceroy of Peru. One day, he discovers a twelve-year-old café singer, Micaela Villegas, and takes her under his protection. Over the course of years, as they travel from tavern to tavern throughout Latin America, she grows into a beautiful and talented young woman. Uncle Pio instructs her in the etiquette of high society and goads her to greatness by expressing perpetual disappointment with her performances. She develops into Camila Perichole, the most honored actress in Lima.

After many years of success, Perichole becomes bored with the stage. The elderly Viceroy, Don Andrés, takes her as his mistress; she and Uncle Pio and the Archbishop of Peru and, eventually, Captain Alvarado meet frequently at midnight for dinner at the Viceroy's mansion. Through it all, Uncle Pio remains faithfully devoted to her, but as Camila ages and bears three children by the Viceroy she focuses on becoming a lady rather than an actress. She avoids Uncle Pio, and when he talks to her she tells him to not use her stage name.

When a smallpox epidemic sweeps through Lima, Camila is disfigured by it. She takes her young son Don Jaime, who suffers from convulsions, to the country. Uncle Pio sees her one night trying hopelessly to cover her pockmarked face with powder; ashamed, she refuses to ever see him again. He begs her to allow him to take her son to Lima and teach the boy as he taught her. Despairing at the turn her life has taken, she reluctantly agrees. Uncle Pio and Jaime leave the next morning, and are the fourth and fifth people on the bridge of San Luis Rey when it collapses.

Part Five: Perhaps an Intention

Brother Juniper labors for six years on his book about the bridge collapse, talking to everyone he can find who knew the victims, trying various mathematical formulas to measure spiritual traits, with no results beyond conventionally pious generalizations. He compiles his huge book of interviews with complete faith in God's goodness and justice, but a council pronounces his work heretical, and the book and Brother Juniper are publicly burned for their heresy.

The story then shifts back in time to the day of a funeral service for those who died in the bridge collapse. The Archbishop, the Viceroy, and Captain Alvarado are at the ceremony. At the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas, the Abbess feels, having lost Pepita and the twin brothers, that her work to help the poor and infirm will die with her. A year after the accident, Camila Perichole seeks out the Abbess to ask how she can go on, having lost her son and Uncle Pio. Camila gains comfort and insight from the Abbess and, it is later revealed, becomes a helper at the Convent. Later, Doña Clara arrives from Spain, also seeking out the Abbess to speak with her about her mother, the Marquesa de Montemayor. She is greatly moved by the work of the Abbess in caring for the deaf, the insane, and the dying. The novel ends with the Abbess' observation: "There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."

Themes and sources

Thornton Wilder said that the book poses the question: "Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual's own will?"[4] Describing the sources of his novel, Wilder explained that the plot was inspired

in its external action by a one-act play [Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement] by [the French playwright] Prosper Mérimée, which takes place in Latin America and one of whose characters is a courtesan. However, the central idea of the work, the justification for a number of human lives that comes up as a result of the sudden collapse of a bridge, stems from friendly arguments with my father, a strict Calvinist. Strict Puritans imagine God all too easily as a petty schoolmaster who minutely weights guilt against merit, and they overlook God's 'Caritas' which is more all-encompassing and powerful. God's love has to transcend his just retribution. But in my novel I have left this question unanswered. As I said earlier, we can only pose the question correctly and clearly, and have faith one will ask the question in the right way.[4]

When asked if his characters were historical or imagined, Wilder replied, "The Perichole and the Viceroy are real people, under the names they had in history [a street singer named Micaela Villegas and her lover Manuel de Amat y Junyent, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time]. Most of the events were invented by me, including the fall of the bridge."[4] He based the Marquesa's habit of writing letters to her daughter on his knowledge of the great French letter-writer Madame de Sévigné.[4]

The bridge itself is based on the great Inca road suspension bridge across the Apurímac River, erected around 1350, still in use in 1864, and dilapidated but still hanging in 1890.[5] When asked by the explorer Victor Wolfgang von Hagen whether he had ever seen a reproduction of E. G. Squier's woodcut illustration of the bridge as it was in 1864, Wilder replied: "It is best, von Hagen, that I make no comment or point of it."[6] In fact, in a letter to Yale professor Chauncey Tinker, Wilder wrote that he had invented the bridge altogether.[7] The name of the bridge is drawn from the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in San Diego County, California.[8]

Recognition and influence

The Bridge of San Luis Rey won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel,[9][10] and remains widely acclaimed as Wilder's most famous novel.[11] In 1998, the book was rated number 37 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library on the list of the 100 best 20th-century novels.[12] Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[13]

Influences

  • In the 1941 novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator, V, finds the book in his brother Sebastian's library.
  • The book is mentioned in Elizabeth Goudge's war-time novel The Castle on the Hill (1942, Chapter I, Part II), where a major character explains that, "... in this case death came to those five just at the most fitting moment of their lives, and that this so-called tragedy, as it affected the lives of others, brought alterations in the pattern [of life] that spelled in the long run only blessing and peace": this character, an elderly historian, is attempting to offer consolation to a woman he has just met whose life has been full of personal tragedy and war-time disaster.
  • Qui non riposano, a 1945 novel by Indro Montanelli, takes inspiration from the book.
  • The book was cited by American writer John Hersey as a direct inspiration for his nonfiction work Hiroshima (1946).
  • Ayn Rand references the theme in Atlas Shrugged (1957), her epic of a fictional decline of the United States into an impoverished kleptocracy. In the aftermath of a disastrous collision in a railroad tunnel, she highlights train passengers who, in one way or another, promoted the moral climate that made the accident likely.
  • The book is mentioned in passing by a character in The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991), the third book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
  • David Mitchell's novels Ghostwritten (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2004) echo the story in many ways, most explicitly through the character Luisa Rey.
  • The book is mentioned in the American television series Monk, season one (2002–03) episode 11, "Mr Monk and the Earthquake".
  • A line from the book is paraphrased on the cover of Sea Power's 2003 album The Decline of British Sea Power. Appearing on the album cover as "There is a land for the living and there is a land for the dead...", it was written by Wilder as "There is a land of the living and a land of the dead...."
  • The Australian television series Glitch references the book in an episode from its second season (2007), and quotes the passage "There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."[14]
  • The book is referred to in the novel Numero Zero (2015), by Umberto Eco.
  • The book is mentioned in passing by a character in Joe Hill's 2016 novel The Fireman.
  • The book is mentioned in the novel Tom Lake (2023), by Ann Patchett.

Inspirational

Adaptations

Film

Three U.S. theatrical films and a television adaptation (1958) have been based on the novel:

Theater

A play for puppets and actors was based on the novel, adapted by Greg Carter and directed by Sheila Daniels:

  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2006)[16]

A play adapted by Cynthia Meier has been performed in Arizona and Connecticut.[17]

Opera

An opera by German composer Hermann Reutter was based on the novel:

  • Die Brücke von San Luis Rey: Szenen nach der Novelle von Thornton Wilder (1954)[18]
Illustrated and Abridged

An illustrated and abridged homage to this timeless classic, making it appealing to a new generation of readers, adapted by Orchestrate Books:

  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2023)[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry (1977). 80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895 - 1975. New York: R.R. Bowker Company. p. 105. ISBN 0-8352-0908-3.
  2. ^ July 20, 1714 was actually a Tuesday although the novel does state Friday. Reference any online calendar of your choosing, or cal -y 1714 on Linux command line
  3. ^ John Noble Wilford (May 8, 2007). "How the Inca Leapt Canyons". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2007.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)", Thornton Wilder Society.
  5. ^ Wilson, Jason (2009). The Andes. United States: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195386363.
  6. ^ Von Hagen, Victor Wolfgang (1955), Highway of the Sun, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, p. 320, ASIN B000O7KTMI
  7. ^ The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder. Letter 103, 6 Dec. 1927. p. 220.
  8. ^ Niven, Penelope. Thornton Wilder: A Life. Harper, 2012. 303.
  9. ^ "Annual Pulitzer Prizes Awarded". The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume XLVIII, Number 162, 8 May 1928, p. 1. (PDF)
  10. ^ "20th-Century American Bestsellers – lts". bestsellers.lib.virginia.edu.
  11. ^ "The Novels of Thornton Wilder". Newsweek. September 16, 2009.
  12. ^ Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century
  13. ^ "All Time 100 Novels". Time. October 16, 2005. Archived from the original on October 21, 2005. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  14. ^ Glitch, Season 2, Episode 6 "The Letter".
  15. ^ Jordan, Justine (September 21, 2001). "Why Thornton Wilder inspired Blair". The Guardian. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  16. ^ "Strawberry Theatre Workshop". Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.
  17. ^ "Performing Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey at Fairfield Ludlow High School". Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  18. ^ Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1996. p. 740. ISBN 0-674-37299-9.
  19. ^ The Bridge of San Luis Rey: An Illustrated and Abridged Homage. Independently published. July 10, 2023. ISBN 979-8-8517-7633-5. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
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Tuesday, May 6, 2025

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

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


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Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Eugene Field - Children's Poems, Bios & Resources



Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
by Eugene Field (1850 –1895)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
That lived in the beautiful sea.
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
Never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home:
'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
As if it could not be;
And some folk thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea;
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod

- by Eugene Field

* * * * * * * *


Eugene Field was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 2, 1850. His father was Roswell Martin Field, an attorney who once represented Dred Scott, an African American man known for the 1857 United States Supreme Court case in which he sued for his freedom. After Field’s mother, Frances, died in 1856, he and his brother, Roswell, were sent to Amherst, Massachusetts, to live with Mary Field, their aunt. 

Field attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois; and the University of Missouri in Columbia, but left without graduating. In 1873, he began working at the St. Louis Journal. His humorous column “Funny Fancies” gained popularity among readers and, in 1880, he moved to Denver, where he worked as managing editor of the Denver Tribune and continued to pen a column. According to the Denver Public Library, “Eugene was known throughout Denver for his practical jokes. His office at the Denver Tribune included a chair with a false bottom. An unsuspecting person would attempt to sit in the chair and fall to the floor instead.”

In 1883, Field moved to Chicago to write a column for the Chicago Daily News. Throughout his career, his columns would occasionally feature his light verse for children, and he became known as the “Poet of Childhood.” His poems were published in A Little Book of Western Verse (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903); The Tribune Primer (Henry A. Dickerman & Son, 1900); and Love-Songs of Childhood (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1894). 

Field died on November 4, 1895, in Chicago. 


* * * * * * * *


Japanese Traditional Song
"Takeda Lullaby" Acapella


Japanese Lullaby
by Eugene Field (1850 –1895)


Sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings,—
Little blue pigeon with velvet eyes;
Sleep to the singing of mother-bird swinging—
Swinging the nest where her little one lies.

Away out yonder I see a star,—
Silvery star with a tinkling song;
To the soft dew falling I hear it calling—
Calling and tinkling the night along.

In through the window a moonbeam comes,—
Little gold moonbeam with misty wings;
All silently creeping, it asks, "Is he sleeping—
Sleeping and dreaming while mother sings?"

Up from the sea there floats the sob
Of the waves that are breaking upon the shore,
As though they were groaning in anguish, and moaning—
Bemoaning the ship that shall come no more.

But sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings,—
Little blue pigeon with mournful eyes;
Am I not singing?—see, I am swinging—
Swinging the nest where my darling lies.

- by Eugene Field

* * * * * * * *



The Sugar-Plum Tree
by Eugene Field (1850 –1895)


Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
'Tis a marvel of great renown!
It blooms on the shore of the Lollypop sea
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;
The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet
(As those who have tasted it say)
That good little children have only to eat
Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time
To capture the fruit which I sing;
The tree is so tall that no person could climb
To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!
But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,
And a gingerbread dog prowls below -
And this is the way you contrive to get at
Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog
And he barks with such terrible zest
That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling proportions attest.
And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy limb unto that,
And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground -
Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,
With stripings of scarlet or gold,
And you carry away of the treasure that rains,
As much as your apron can hold!
So come, little child, cuddle closer to me
In your dainty white nightcap and gown,
And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree
In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

- by Eugene Field


* * * * * * * *


Dream Lady, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago

Eugene Fields Bio

For fifty dollars a week, the Chicago Morning News lured popular newspaper columnist Eugene Field to relocate from Denver. In 1883, Field was already widely known, and his new column, Sharps and Flats, would continue his reputation for humorous essays. Living near the intersection of North Clarendon and West Hutchinson in the Buena Park neighborhood, Field chided current events and people, often in the arts and literature, and made a habit of criticizing his new city’s materialism. He called Chicago, “Porkopolis.” Soon, Field’s production of children’s verse increased, and his audience broadened. Field’s first poetry publication was in 1879, and more than a dozen volumes followed. Though Field’s intended audience appeared to be largely adults, his nostalgic recollections of growing up earned him the nickname “Poet of Childhood.” He also wrote a substantial number of short stories. Field died of a heart attack in Chicago at the age of 45, and is buried at Kenilworth’s Church of the Holy Comforter. The Eugene Field Memorial in the Lincoln Park Zoo features “Dream Lady,” an Edwin Francis McCartan sculpture based on the poem, “The Rock-a-By Lady from Hush-a-By Street.” The granite base depicts scenes from other Field poems, including “The Fly Away Horse” and “Seein Things.” His famous “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” as well as parts of “The Sugar Plum Tree” are carved into the sides. Other local memorials include an Albany Park field house named after the writer; Chicago, Elmhurst, Park Ridge, Wheeling, Rock Island and Normal elementary schools bearing his name; and Field Park in Oak Park.


* * * * * * * *


Eugene Fields Poems


At the Door

Armenian Lullaby

Ashes on the Slide

Ballad of the Jelly-Cake

Bambino (Corsican Lullaby)

Beard and Baby

Buttercup, Poppy, Forget-me-Not

Christmas Eve

Christmas Treasures

Cobbler and Stork

The Cunnin' Little Thing

The Dinkey-Bird

The Duel

Father's Letter

The Fire-Hangbird's Nest

The First Christmas Tree, 1912

Ganderfeather's Gift

Garden and Cradle

Gold and Love for Dearie, Cornish Lullaby

Hi-Spy

In the Firelight

Jest 'fore Christmas

Jewish Lullaby

Kissing Time

To a Little Brook

Little Boy Blue

Little Croodlin' Doo

Little Mistress Sans-Merci

Lollyby, Lolly, Lollyby

Long Ago

Marcus Varro, on a Roman book-lover

To Mary Field French

Morning Song

The Night Wind

Norse Lullaby

Oh, Little Child (Sicilian Lullaby)

The Peace of Christmas-Time

Pittypat and Tippytoe

Rock-a-by-Lady

Seein' Things

The Sugar Plum Tree

Telling the Bees, The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893

A Valentine

With Trumpet and Drum

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Dutch Lullaby

The Dream Ship


* * * * * * * *


Eugene Field (1850 - 1895)

Poet Eugene Fields


Poet, newspaper writer, and humorist whose poetry for and about children is still widely read today.

Early Life

Eugene Field was born September 2nd, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri. His father, Roswell Field, was a famous lawyer.

Roswell Field was best known as the attorney for Dred Scott in the Dred Scott Case. He argued for the rights of African Americans to earn United States citizenship.

Eugene was mostly raised by his mother, as his father was very busy. However, Eugene's mother passed away when he was only six years old. Eugene's father did not have time to take care of the children, so Eugene and his brothers were sent to Amherst, Massachusetts to live with an aunt.

College and Europe

Eugene was a notoriously poor student who barely graduated high school. He was able to get into Williams College in Massachusetts based mostly on family connections.

Eugene was at Williams College for only a year, as he dropped out in 1868 to return to Missouri. His father was very sick, and Eugene stayed in St. Louis until his father passed away in 1869.

Eugene inherited quite a bit of money from his father, but was not allowed to have any of it until he turned twenty-one.

Later that year, nineteen-year-old Eugene enrolled at Knox University in Illinois. He was expelled from Knox after a practical joke went wrong.

Eugene returned to Missouri for his last two years of college. He enrolled at the University of Missouri in Columbia where his brother Roswell Jr. was a student. Eugene studied Journalism, but was much better known for his outrageous pranks than his academics.

Although Eugene attended three colleges, he never earned a diploma. Eugene hated mathematics and failed his required math courses at the University of Missouri, which kept him from graduating.

Eugene was able to use his inheritance after his senior year of college, so he decided to travel to Europe rather than go back to school and try to graduate. He and his good friend Edgar Comstock traveled for six months, until Eugene realized he had spent his entire (large) inheritance in less than a year!

Writing for Newspapers

Invitation to wedding of Eugene Field and Julia Comstock.

Back in Missouri, Eugene took a job writing for the St. Louis Evening Journal. He spent quite a bit of time with Edgar Comstock and his family in St. Louis. Eugene soon fell in love with Edgar's fourteen-year-old sister, Julia.

Julia's father would not let her get married before she turned eighteen, so Eugene dedicated himself to his work at the St. Louis Evening Journal while he waited.

He was promoted to editor in only six months. He spent the rest of his time trying to convince Julia's father to let them get married earlier.

Two years later, he was successful. In 1873, twenty-three-year-old Eugene and sixteen-year-old Julia were married.

They had a very happy marriage, and their family grew to include eight children. Eugene prided himself on being an excellent father, and his children were the inspiration for many of his poems.

Eugene spent the next three years working at newspapers around Missouri as a writer and editor. In 1876, he was hired by the St. Louis Times-Journal. Eugene wrote a column called "Funny Fancies" that included humorous articles, short stories, and poems. "Funny Fancies" was so popular that newspapers around the country began reprinting the column.

Eugene Comes to Denver

Francis Wilson, a famous actor of the 1880s (left) and Eugene Field (right)

Eugene's popularity as a writer led to many job offers.

In 1880, he accepted the position of managing editor of the Denver Tribune. Eugene's most popular columns in the Denver Tribune were titled "The Current Gossip" and "Odds and Ends."

Both columns satirized daily life in early Denver. For instance, Eugene poked fun at the city's Wild West atmosphere in an article warning little girls about the dangers of chewing tobacco daily.

Eugene was known throughout Denver for his practical jokes. His office at the Denver Tribune included a chair with a false bottom. An unsuspecting person would attempt to sit in the chair and fall to the floor instead.

In the 1880s, Denver was a popular place to rest for a few days when traveling between the East and West Coast. Because of this, Eugene became friends with the many important people who stopped in Denver. Famous writers, actors, and artists were among Eugene's personal friends, and they helped promote Eugene's writing.

Eugene used his growing fame to publish his first two books while in Denver. His first collection of poems was called The Tribune Primer. While only a few copies were published, the Tribune Primer circulated throughout the country. Eugene's second work, A Little Book of Western Verse, contained poems as well as articles from his newspaper column "The Current Gossip."

These two books made Eugene a literary celebrity. He received many job offers to write for newspapers throughout the country.

In 1883, Eugene decided to take a job writing for the Chicago Morning News.

Sharps and Flats

Original Printing of Sharps and Flats Column 'An Event of Note'.

In Chicago, Eugene continued writing "The Current Gossip" for the Chicago Morning News, though after a few weeks Eugene renamed the column "Sharps and Flats."

"Sharps and Flats" became the most popular column of its time, and was reprinted in hundreds of newspapers daily. Eugene became known as the "father of the personal newspaper column." This meant that people read "Sharps and Flats" just because they were interested in what Eugene had to say.

Eugene wrote many satirical articles about life in Chicago.

He nicknamed the city "Porkopolis," in reference to the many wealthy people in the city who made fortunes from meat packing. Eugene disliked the factory-filled, dirty city which seemed to be constantly under construction.

He also realized that while the salary he was offered at the Chicago Morning News would have made him rich in Denver, in Chicago it was not enough to support his large family. For many years the Fields, despite Eugene's fame, were on the brink of starvation.

However, Eugene's years in Chicago were the peak of his creativity. He published hundreds of poems and several books.

Most of his poems were about childhood and children - specifically his own children. Eugene's 1888 poem "Little Boy Blue," one of the most known poems even today, is based on the death of his son. His other most famous poem, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" was written to entertain his children.

These many poems made Eugene famous as "The Poet of Childhood."

Ironically, Eugene hated the nickname. While Eugene loved being a father, he admitted he didn't like children that weren't his own. In fact, more than once he was caught making scary faces at children when he thought their parents weren't looking.

The Death of Eugene Field

Statue of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod in Denver's Washington Park

By 1895, things appeared to be going well for Eugene and his family.

His books and columns had begun to earn him real money, and for the first time in years the Fields enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. They were able to move into a much larger house, and Eugene began collecting beautiful rare books with his extra income.

He was an in demand speaker, and was invited around the United States and Europe to read his poems and give speeches. Eugene started writing his autobiography in 1894, and continued working on it through 1895.

In November of 1895, Eugene was invited to give a reading of his work in Kansas City. Eugene ended up postponing the trip until later in the week, as he was not feeling well.

The night before Eugene was scheduled to leave for Kansas City, his fourteen-year-old son heard Eugene groaning and went to check on him. He was shocked to find his father dead.

Doctors determined that Eugene had lived for many years with an undiagnosed heart condition, which led to his completely unexpected death. Eugene was only forty-five, and had children ranging from ages nineteen to just under a year old.

The world was horrified and saddened to learn of Eugene's death, and the Chicago Morning News wrote "All the children of the land mourn their laureate."

Eugene inspired countless memorials throughout the United States.

In Denver, Eugene Field's house in Washington Park is on the Register of Historic Places. A statue of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, inspired by Eugene's poem of the same name, stands in Washington Park.

The Eugene Field Library in Washington Park and the Eugene Field apartment building on Denver's Poet's Row are named in his honor as well.

Eugene Field has been one of the most recognized names in poetry for over one hundred years, and his many poems about and for children are still read and loved today.

Word Bank

Dred Scott Case – In 1857, a black slave named Dred Scott sued the United States government for his freedom since he had moved with his master from a state where slavery was legal to a state where it was illegal. The Supreme Court rejected the case because they claimed slaves were not U.S. citizens and could not have their cases heard by the Supreme Court. Many people were angered by the Supreme Court's decision, and historians believe the Dred Scott Case helped lead to the Civil War that broke out between slave owning and non-slave owning states in 1861.

notorious – famous or well known, especially for a bad reason

practical joke – a trick played on others to make them look foolish

outrageous – bold, unusual, or startling

inspiration – the person or thing that motivates another person to creative action

satirize – using irony and exaggeration to draw attention to issues in society

circulate – to move from place to place and person to person

satirical – a creative work that uses satire (see 'satirize' definition above)

undiagnosed - a disease or condition not identified by a doctor

laureate - someone who has special recognition as being the best at what they do, especially in poetry or the arts

Get Thinking!
  • How do you think the Denver Eugene Field lived in during the 1880s is different from Denver today? How might it be the same?
  • Have you ever read a poem by Eugene Field? What did you like about it? What didn't you like?
  • Eugene Field used satire in much of his writing (see definition above!). What would you write satire about in your daily life?

More Eugene Field Information

At the Denver Public Library
Books By Eugene Field at the Denver Public Library
Books about Eugene Field at the Denver Public Library
Around the Web

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