Summary Of The Poem, Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town
A man named anyone lived in a quaint, ordinary town where bells frequently chimed. Season after season, he was open about all the things he hadn’t done but celebrated all that he was able to accomplish.
None of the men or women in the town cared about anyone. Instead, they focused on their own achievements. The townspeople planted the things they never did in the ground and then harvested more of the same. Time continued on: day turned to night, the stars appeared in the sky, and rain fell.
Some children picked up on the fact that a woman named no one loved anyone. But as the seasons passed and the children grew up, they lost interest in the relationship, even as noone herself loved anyone more and more.
The bond between anyone and no one gradually blossomed, bit by bit. none felt both his joy and his sadness, laughing and crying along with him. Little by little, as time continued to pass, they grew so close that anything that mattered to anyone was everything no one.
The other townspeople married their own partners. These couples also experienced their own joys and sorrows. Their lives followed an established pattern as if the townspeople were performing the motions of a dance. They would sleep, wake, look towards the future, and repeat. They discussed everything they hadn’t done and ultimately, they died.
Time continued on: the stars appeared in the night sky, rain fell, the sun and moon rose and set. It's a part of life that, as they get older, children tend to grow less interested in the lives of other people. All the while, the bells chime again and again.
Of course, at some point, anyone passed away. none bent over to kiss him and eventually, she died too. Townspeople who were wrapped up in their own lives briefly paused to bury them next to each other.
Gradually, bit by bit, their spirits settled into the dreamlike slumber that is death. Meanwhile, their bodies decomposed, becoming one with the earth and nurturing a new spring.
The bells kept chiming as the next generation of townspeople grew up and the seasons continued to cycle on and on. These townspeople had children of their own, but then this generation died too. Day turned to night, the stars appeared in the sky, and rain fell.
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Themes of Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town
Community, Conformity, and Isolation
The poem critiques the conformity it sees as inherent to modern life, in which, the poem implies, people are all driven to want the same things and seek the same conventional markers of success. Rather than nurturing a sense of kinship and connection based on these shared desires, however, the poem suggests that this conformity actually drives people apart: people are so preoccupied with reaching personal milestones—so wrapped up in their own lives—that they become indifferent to others' experiences. As such, the poem suggests that conformity often discourages people from empathy and introspection, instead of breeding indifference and isolation within communities.
The townspeople are hyper-focused on reaching milestones that fulfil certain social expectations. For instance, the poem’s fourth stanza begins “someones married their everyones / laughed their cryings and did their dance.” Essentially, every member of this society follows the same framework, mechanically approaching life is as if going through the motions of a "dance."
The poem itself is also highly repetitive, reinforcing the idea that the townspeople partake in the same routines that are carried out over and over indefinitely. The speaker also regularly lists the seasons as well as various phases of the sky, rotating through list items (e.g., “sun moon stars rain … stars rain sun moon”) to emphasize that these cycles never change and create a sense that the townspeople are trapped by their routine and conformity.
What’s more, throughout the poem, community members reap “their same," suggesting that they all work towards the same rewards. This line can also be interpreted to mean that the townspeople give birth to children who follow the exact same path as their parents, or that because people never step out of their expected routines, their lives will never change; they will "reap," or harvest, more of the same. The townspeople industriously reproduce the "same" result again and again, seemingly committed to perpetuating existing routines without question or deviation.
And because they fixate on a blueprint for individual success, the townspeople are disconnected from one another’s unique personal experiences. The speaker introduces the townspeople by pointing out that they “care for anyone not at all.” Thus, they find no inherent value in their fellow community members, despite the fact that they all want the same things in life. Even when no one sees something in anyone, the townspeople pay him no mind.
The few children who do pick up on their bond gradually lose interest, suggesting that the townspeople are not born indifferent to the experiences of others, but rather adopt such attitudes over time when growing up in such a conformist world. The desire to conform, to follow in the footsteps of those before them, creates this communal indifference.
The couple eventually passes away, and even then, the townspeople show little concern. Those who bury anyone and none are “busy,” indicating that they are again preoccupied with their own affairs. And after these deaths, the community members simply proceed with their lives, going about their normal activities. The speaker again lists the seasons, phases of the sky, and reaping crops to illustrate their seamless, instinctive return to the same habits, utterly unaffected by the loss of two of their own.
The town’s culture champions regularity, encouraging its people to dedicate themselves to established routines. But the townspeople become so swept up in these formulas that they disregard all else—including one another. The poem suggests that this behaviour is learned, spread, and reinforced over time, creating a perpetual loop of isolation within their community.
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