Notes:Cultural references and allusions

This is a list of cultural references and allusions in the Anne of Green Gables series and related works by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Among the Hills
"Flowers spring to blossom where she walks The careful ways of duty, Our hard, stiff lines of life with her Are flowing curves of beauty."

- Anne of Avonlea – Epigraph

This quote is from a poem called "Among the Hills" by John Greenleaf Whittier. It is featured in Among the Hills and Other Poems.

The Bible
"Harvest is ended and summer is gone."

Paraphrased from Jeremiah 8:20.

"And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

From 2 Corinthians 4:18.

"The fatal apple of Eden couldn't have had a rarer flavour ..."

Anne is referencing the old creation story in the book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve are punished for eating the fruit (sometimes assumed to be an apple, though it is never specifically stated) that grows on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. This introduces sin into the world, and is what triggers God to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden. And since there is now sin in the world, there is also death, which may be why Anne referred to the apple as "fatal".

"Those apples have been as manna to a hungry soul."

Anne is possibly referring to the period of time in the Old Testament when the Israelites ate the food God provided for them for forty years while they wandered in the desert. The food that came in the morning was called manna, and the food that came in the evening was quail. Manna was thin flakes of bread, and literally came down from the skies. Both manna and quail fulfilled every need the Israelites had for food.

"I withhold not my heart from any joy."

From Ecclesiastes 2:10. Anne quotes this line to Mrs Gibson, who promptly quashes it with a counter-quote, below:

"Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward."

From Job 5:7. Mrs Gibson uses this as a cynical reminder to Anne.

Bingen on the Rhine
"I know ever so many pieces of poetry off by heart – The Battle of Hohenlinden' and 'Edinburgh after Flodden', and 'Bingen on the Rhine', and most of the `Lady of the Lake' and most of 'The Seasons' by James Thompson."

"Bingen on the Rhine" is a poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton. When Anne is relating her history to Marilla on the way to Mrs. Spencer's, she mentions it as one of the poems she has memorised.

"Only one number on the program failed to interest her. When Gilbert Blythe recited 'Bingen on the Rhine' Anne picked up Rhoda Murray's library book and read it until he had finished, when she sat rigidly stiff and motionless while Diana clapped her hands until they tingled."

Gilbert Blythe recites "Bingen on the Rhine" at the Debating Club concert in February 1877, on Diana Barry's birthday.

"Oh, Anne, how could you pretend not to listen to him? When he came to the line, 'There's another, not a sister,' he looked right down at you."

Diana Barry also remarks on Gilbert's performance to Anne. "There's another, not a sister" is from the beginning of stanza five, though with the emphasis on the word "another" instead of the word "not". This is likely a reference to Gilbert's romantic interest in Anne at that point, though Anne was too stubborn to realise the romance of it.

"That was the night Gilbert recited 'Bingen on the Rhine,' and looked at you when he said, 'There's another, not a sister.' And you were so furious because he put your pink tissue rose in his breast pocket!"

The poem is mentioned again just before Anne's wedding, by Diana, when she and Anne are reminiscing.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
"I feel like Byron's 'Childe Harold' – only it isn't really my 'native shore' that I'm watching."

This is a reference to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, by George Gordon, Lord Byron. The "native shore" quote comes from Canto the First, part XIII.

David Copperfield
"You'll always keep a corner for me, won't you, Di darling? Not the spare room, of course -- old maids can't aspire to spare rooms, and I shall be as 'umble as Uriah Heep, and quite content with a little over-the-porch or off-the-parlor cubby hole."

This is a reference to David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. In it, there is a character called Uriah Heep who is constantly claiming to be humble (he pronounces it "'umble").

Dickens in Camp
"And so in mountain solitudes o'ertaken As by some spell divine, Their cares drop from them like the needles shaken From out the gusty pine."

This is the seventh stanza of the poem "Dickens in Camp", by Bret Harte.

The Day-Dream
"All precious things discovered late To those that seek them issue forth, For Love in sequel works with Fate, And draws the veil from hidden worth."

- Anne of the Island – Epigraph

This is from "The Day-Dream" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It opens the part called "The Arrival".

The Dog at His Master's Grave
"Then all the other little girls recited a paraphrase. She [Miss Rogerson] asked me if I knew any. I told her I didn't, but I could recite, 'The Dog at His Master's Grave' if she liked. That's in the Third Royal Reader. It isn't a really truly religious piece of poetry, but it's so sad and melancholy that it might as well be."

"The Dog at His Master's Grave" is a poem that was written by Lydia Howard Huntly Sigourney.

Don Juan
"What, silent still and silent all? Oh, no, the voices of the dead Sound like the distant torrent's fall,"

This is from "The Isles of Greece", which is a poem featured in Canto the Third of Don Juan, by George Gordon, Lord Byron. It is the beginning of the eighth stanza.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
"'Goldie' became so manifestly an inadequate name for the orange kitten that Walter, who was just then reading Stevenson's story, changed it to Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde. In his Dr. Jekyll mood the cat was a drowsy, affectionate, domestic, cushion-loving puss, who liked petting and gloried in being nursed and patted. Especially did he love to lie on his back and have his sleek, cream-coloured throat stroked gently while he purred in somnolent satisfaction. He was a notable purrer; never had there been an Ingleside cat who purred so constantly and so ecstatically."

Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde was a cat of two personalities who lived at Ingleside. He was named by Walter, who at that time was reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Evelyn Hope
"The good stars met in your horoscope Made you of spirit and fire and dew."

- Anne of Green Gables – Epigraph

These two lines are from a poem called "Evelyn Hope", by Robert Browning. It is worth mentioning that the lines have been changed very slightly from the original poem: the original reads: "The good stars met in your horoscope/Made you of spirit, fire and dew". The quote at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables adds an extra "and".

Further Language from Truthful James
"Do I sleep, do I dream, do I wonder and doubt? Is things what they seem, or is visions about?"

This is a quote from a poem called "Further Language from Truthful James" by Bret Harte. Note that the wording has been changed slightly: in the original, the line is "Are things what they seem", whereas in Chronicles of Avonlea it is rendered as "Is things what they seem".

The Lord of Burleigh
"Let's go home around by Spofford Avenue. We can see all 'the handsome houses where the wealthy nobles dwell'."

This is from a poem called "The Lord of Burleigh", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Lucile
"And on Inkerman yet the wild bramble is gory, And those bleak heights henceforth shall be famous in story."

These lines which Anne quotes are from Lucile by Owen Meredith (Canto VI, Part VII).

The Merchant of Venice
"The quality of mercy is not strained."

Sally Nelson quotes this after Aunt Mouser gossips harshly and unrepentantly in front of her. Aunt Mouser promptly chides her, saying, 'Don't quote the Bible flippantly', even though Sally's quote is not from the Bible, but Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene I.

Ode to a Nightingale
"In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of 'faery lands forlorn' ..."

This is from stanza seven of "Ode to a Nightingale", by John Keats.

The Race that Long in Darkness Pined
"Quick as the slaughtered squadrons fell In Midian's evil day"

This was part of the nineteenth paraphrase which Anne's Sunday school teacher, Miss Rogerson, told Anne to learn and recite the next week in Sunday school. It is from an old Scottish Christmas carol called "The Race that Long in Darkness Pined".

Scottish prayer
"From ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go thump in the night, good Lord, deliver us."

Anne quotes this for comedic effect during her stay at Bonnyview, when a bump is literally heard in the night.

Sorrows of Werther
"Dora, like the immortal and most prudent Charlotte, who 'went on cutting bread and butter' when her frenzied lover's body had been carried past on a shutter, was one of those fortunate creatures who are seldom disturbed by anything."

This is a reference to "Sorrows of Werther", by William Makepeace Thackeray.

The Vision of Sir Launfal
"The little birds sang as if it were The one day of summer in all the year."

The quote above is from a poem called "The Vision of Sir Launfal", by James Russell Lowell. It is taken from Part First, stanza III.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
"Shoes and ships and sealing wax And cabbages and kings,"

This is from "The Walrus and the Carpenter", stanza 11, by Lewis Carroll. "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is one of the poems in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Ye Mariners of England: A Naval Ode
"... she saw the Kingsport Harbour of nearly a century agone. Out of the mist came slowly a great frigate, brilliant with 'the meteor flag of England'."

The line is from "Ye Mariners of England: A Naval Old Ode" by Thomas Campbell.