VOICES OF CENTRAL MAINE
A citizen access resource for residents of central Maine.

Dec

7

The TILBURY CHRONICLES #1 - Tilbury Defined

Filed Under All, Text, Tilbury Chronicles

by Bob Demers, Gardiner

Around the turn of the century a Pulitzer prize-winning Maine poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson, made occasional references in his poems to a place he called Tilbury Town. Here are a few examples:

“We’ve each a darkening hill to climb;
And this is why, from time to time
In Tilbury Town, we look beyond
Horizons for the man Flammonde.”
Flammonde

“In Tilbury Town did Old King Cole
A wise old age anticipate,
Desiring, with his pipe and bowl,
No Khan’s extravagant estate.”
Old King Cole

“Where are you going to-night, to-night, -
Where are you going John Evereldown?
There’s never the sign of a star in sight,
Nor a lamp that’s nearer than Tilbury Town.”
John Evereldown

Local readers concluded that Tilbury Town was a code name for Gardiner, Maine, where the poet grew up. Robinson denied that this was so, admitting only that it could be any small New England Town. So there.

Tilbury is the home of the famous Theatre-On-The-Fritz where locals and visitors go to soak up culture and watch the bats mate. The theatre is also the meeting place of the Tilbury town council whenever a quorum is present. This last happened in 1976.

So where exactly is Tilbury Town?

It will come as a surprise to a lot of folks that Tilbury Town is, in fact, located on an island just around a bend of the Kennebec River just north of Gardiner, Maine.

Tilbury folk are charming, if not downright frightening. After visiting with them for a spell via the enlightening tales herein, you might even start thinking about moving there to live. Few have actually done this, and fewer still have ever returned. We recommend that you resist the urge at all costs. But if you can’t resist, then we recommend you learn everything you can about the place. This book will help. It samples the everyday life on this unique river island and is the only known source of reliable information about, among other things, Tilbury Town politics, coping with tourists, the economics of isolation, rural community theatre and other arts and culture stuff.

You scholars out there will be thrilled to know that a tilbury is a light two wheeled carriage for two people. It was named after a 19th century coach builder. Ain’t that exciting?

(Next time we’ll meet a true Tilbury intellectual - Stay Tuned)

Comments

One Response to “The TILBURY CHRONICLES #1 - Tilbury Defined”

  1. Dorothy Washburne on February 11th, 2008 11:11 am

    Sorry to disagree with you…..and while it is true that, sometimes, when EAR was asked where Tilbury Town was, he would reply that it was any small New England town. However,in Richard Cary’s book, “Uncollected Poems and Prose of Edwin Arlington Robinson, pg 146, Robinson states that”(Gardiner, Maine) may be responsible, in a shadowy way, for Tilbuy Town.

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