There was a girl in our town, Silk an'satin was her gown, Silk an'satin, gold an' velvet, Guess her name, three times I've telled it.

-Anonymous
Quoted in  James Orchard Halliwell  The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842). The answer, of course, is'Ann'.

   It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.

-Anonymous
  Statement issued by the US army, referring to Ben Tre in Vietnam. In the NewYork Times, 8 Feb.

He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the ba'; And the bonnie Earl of Murray Was the flower amang them a'. He was a braw gallant, And he play'd at the glove; And the bonnie Earl of Murray, O he was the Queen's luve. O lang will his lady Look owre the castle Doune, Ere she sees the Earl of Murray Come sounding thro'the toun.

-Ballads
'The Bonnie Earl of Murray'.

This bloody town's a bloody cussö No bloody trains, no bloody bus, And no one cares for bloody usö In bloody Orkney.

-Blair, Hamish pseudonym of  Andrew James Fraser Blair
  'The Bloody Orkneys', stanza1. First published in  Arnold Silcock Verse and Worse,'Queer People'.

Though this was fair, and that was braw, And yon the toast of a'the town, I sigh'd, and said amang them a', 'Ye are na Mary Morison.'

-Burns, Robert
  'Mary Morison', stanza 2.

The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown: The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town. Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown; Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.

-Dodgson
Through the Looking-Glass, ch.7,'The Lion and the Unicorn'.

He likes the country, but in truth must own, Most likes it, when he studies it in town.

-Cowper,William
  Poems,'Retirement'.

God made the country, and man made the town.

-Cowper,William
  The Task, bk.1,'The Sofa', l.749.

Ye Lilies male! think (as your tea you sip, While theTown small-talk flows from lip to lip; Intrigues half-gathered, conversation-scraps, Kitchen-cabals, and nursery-mishaps), If the vast world may not some scene produce, Some state where your small talents might have use.

-Crabbe, George
  The Borough, letter 3,'The Vicar', l.69^74.

The last bear, shot drinking in the Dakotas Loped under wires that span the mountain stream. Keen instruments, strung to a vast precision Bind town to town and dream to ticking dream.

-Crane, (Harold) Hart
  The Bridge,'The River'.

anyone lived in a pretty how town (with up so floating many bells down) spring summer autumn winter he sang his didn't he danced his did

-cummings, e e pen name of  Edward Estlin Cummings
  50 poems, no.29.

   It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but, as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black as the painted face of a savage.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
  Of Coketown. Hard Times, bk.1, ch.5.

Musicians wrestle everywhereö All dayöamong the crowded air I hear the silver strifeö Andöwakingölong before the mornö Such transport breaks upon the town I think it that 'New Life!'

-Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth
c.1860  Complete Poems, no.157 (first published1891).

   Auld Reikie! wale o' ilka town That Scotland kens beneath the moon; Whare couthy chiels at e'ening meet Their bizzing craigs and mous to weet.

-Ferber, Edna
  'Auld Reikie,  A Poem'.

An annibaptist is a thing I am not a member of:öI am a Pisplikan just now & a Prisbeteren at Kercaldy my native town which thugh dirty is clein in the country.

-Fleming, Marjory
  'Journal 3' in F Sidgwick (ed)  The Complete Marjory Fleming (1934).

Washington is a town where more people probably contemplate writing a book than finish reading one.

-Geracimos, Ann
  In the Washington Times, 29 Mar.

A foggy day in LondonTown Had me low and had me down.

-Gershwin, Ira originally Israel Gershowitz
  'A Foggy Day', song from the musical Damsel in Distress (music by George Gershwin).

There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu, There's a little marble cross below the town, There'sa broken-heartedwomantendsthegrave of Mad Carew, And theYellow God forever gazes down.

-Hayes,J Milton
The Green Eye of theYellow God. US  Republican  statesman  and 19th  President  (1877^81).  Under his  presidency,  the  country  recovered  commercial  prosperity, and his  policy  included  the  reform  of  the  civil  service  and  the conciliation of the Southern states.

Surelyarchitecture is the organization for pleasure of enclosed space. And what more magnificent enclosure than a town, a place, a place where the spirit is cuddled, made serene, made proud, happy, or excited depending on the ceremony, the day, the hour.

-Johnson, Philip Cortelyou
  'The Seven Crutches of  Architecture', informal talk to students, School of  Architectural Design, Harvard University, 7 Dec. Published in Perspecta 3 (1955).

The widening river's slow presence, The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud, Gathers to the surprise of a large town: Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster Beside grain-scattered streets, barge-crowded water, And residents from raw estates.

-Larkin, Philip Arthur
  Of Hull.'Here'.