Notes:Anne of Windy Poplars/Cultural references and allusions

"She said and vanished, as Homer was so fond of remarking."

Anne is referring to the Greek epic, The Iliad, by Homer.

"From my west window I can see all over the harbour to distant, misty shores, with dear little sailing-boats I love and the ships outward bound 'for ports unknown' – fascinating phrase! Such 'scope for the imagination' in it!"

"Scope for the imagination" is a quote from chapter 42 of Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768).

"When we studied Tennyson in our English course at Redmond I was always sorrowfully at one with poor Oenone, mourning her ravished pines."

Anne is referring to the poem, "Oenone", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"'Stormy wind, fulfilling his word'. How I've always thrilled to that Bible verse, as if each and every wind had a message for me!"

This quote is a reference to Psalms 148:8.

"I've always envied the boy who flew with the North Wind in that beautiful old story of George Macdonald's."

Anne is referring to At the Back of the North Wind, a children's fantasy book, first published in 1871, by George MacDonald.

"It has come to an end now, for far up the harbour the moon is 'sinking into shadow land'."

Anne quotes from the poem, "Moonset", by E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) when describing her new surroundings to Gilbert.

"The ringleader of them seems to be Jen Pringle, a green-eyed bantling who looks as Becky Sharp must have looked at fourteen."

Becky Sharp is a cunning, intelligent, and self-aware character from William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel, Vanity Fair.

"She does perpetrate some amusing howlers; as, for instance, when she said today in history class that the Indians thought Champlain and his men were gods or 'something inhuman'."

This is a reference to the founder of New France and Quebec City, Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635).

"There are times when I feel myself that I could cheerfully hand any and all of the Pringes a poisoned philtre of the Borgia's brewing."

The Borgias were a prominent aristocratic Italian family during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are infamously known for their criminal activities, especially for murdering their enemies by poison.

"They have another ancestor who fought at the battle of Minden, and his sword is hanging on the parlour wall beside Captain Abraham's portrait."

The Battle of Minden, fought on 1 August 1759, was a decisive victory for Anglo-German forces against the French and Saxony armies during the Seven Years' War (1754-1763).

"The wind is blowing 'in turret and tree' and making my cosy room seem even cosier."

Anne quotes from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Sisters".

"When he died the minister preached from the text, "Their works do follow them," and old Myrom Pringle said in that case the road to heaven behind my great-great-grandfather would be choked with spinning wheels."

Valentine Courtaloe is referring to Revelation 14:13.

"This is Mrs Dan Pringle - Janetta Bird. Seventy to a day when she died. Folks say she would have thought it wrong to die a day older than three-score and ten, because that is the Bible limit."

This is a reference to Psalms 90:10. The span of a life in the Bible is considered to be approximately 70 years, "three-score and ten", which, in modern terms, means sixty plus ten.

"I am in my tower, and Rebecca Dew is carolling 'Could I But Climb' in the kitchen."

Anne is likely referring to the hymn, "There is a land of pure delight" by Isaac Watts (1707).

"Tonight the harbour, lying dark under a crimson sunset, seemed full of implications of 'fairylands forlorn' and mysterious isles in uncharted seas."

Anne quotes from John Keats' poem, "Ode to a Nightingale".

"It is a 'dreaming town'. Isn't that a lovely phrase? You remember: 'Galahad through dreaming towns did go'?"

Anne is referring to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "Sir Galahad" (1842).

"Papa is really just like Longfellow's little girl: when he's good he's very very good, and when he's bad he's horrid."

Trix Taylor is referring to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "There was a little girl".

"'What would you think of a man who would write down in his diary every day what he had for dinner?' asked Trix. 'The great Pepys did that,' said Dr. Carter, with another smile."

Lennox Carter is referring to Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), an English writer, naval administrator, and Member of Parliament, who is best-known for his diary that he kept from 1660-1669, which encompasses such events as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London. Pepys was a great lover of food and drink, and is fondly known for burying his prized Italian Parmesan cheese in his garden during the Great Fire.

"All's well that ends well - and thank goodness I'll never have to dust that vase again!"

This is a reference to William Shakespeare's play, All's Well That Ends Well.

"Jen Pringle and I walked part of the way home from school yesterday, and talked of 'shoes and ships and sealing-wax' - of almost everything but geometry."

Anne is quoting from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll, a poem which appears in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872).

"I lent Jen my Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I hate to lend a book I love; it never seems quite the same when it comes back to me. But I love Foxe's Martyrs only because dear Mrs. Allan gave it to me for a Sunday School prize years ago."

John Foxe's Book of Martyrs was first published in 1563 under the title, Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church. The book, very influential during the sixteenth century, explores the history of Protestant martyrs under persecution from the Catholic Church.

"It's still February, and 'on the convent roof the snows are sparkling to the moon'. Only it isn't a convent; just the roof of Mr. Hamilton's barn."

Anne quotes from "St. Agnes' Eve" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"One of the things Elizabeth is going to do in Tomorrow is 'go to Philadelphia and see the angel in the church'. I haven't told her - I never will tell her - that the Philadelphia St John was writing about was not Phila. Pa."

This is a reference to Revelation 3:7.

"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.

"When it got quite dark we went back, and Mr. Gregor was ready to start; and so,' concluded Pauline, with a laugh, 'the Old Woman got Home that Night.'"

Pauline Gibson is quoting from the old English folktale, "The Old Woman and her Pig". The tale was popularized in 1890 by Australian author, Joseph Jacobs, in his collection, English Fairy Tales.

"[Anne] thought of Pauline trotting back to her bondage, but accompanied by 'the immortal spirit of one happy day'."

This is a quote from the poem, "There is a little unpretending Rill" by William Wordsworth (1820).

"On this June evening it was bubbling over with young life and excitement [...] while Dr. Nelson's two black cats, who rejoiced in the names of Barnabas and Saul, sat on the veranda and watched everything like two imperturbable sable sphinxes."

Barnabas and Saul (later known as Paul) were two Christian apostles from the first century A.D. who undertook missionary journeys together, which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible.

"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.

"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. It is an old Scottish prayer.

"There's nobody to care how I look,' said Nora bitterly. 'Well, watch me grin, Anne. I mustn't be the death's-head at the feast, I suppose. I have to play the Wedding March after all. Vera's got a terrible headache. I feel more like playing the Death March, as Aunt Mouser foreboded."

"Wedding March" was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1842 in his suite of incidental music for the Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. "Death March" is a piece of music, commonly played at funerals, which was composed by George Frederic Handel and features in Act III of his dramatic oratorio, Saul (1738).

"I don't suppose any of us will ever have more than an academic interest in 'battles long ago'."

Anne is quoting from the poem, "The Solitary Reaper", by William Wordsworth.

"Remember what Emerson says: 'Oh, what have I to do with time?'"

Anne is quoting from line 11 of the poem, "Waldeinsamkeit", by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Thou shalt have none other gods before me,"

Rebecca Dew quotes from Exodus 20:3.

"Katherine Brooke had really been unbearable of late. Again and again Anne, rebuffed, had said, as grimly as Poe's raven, 'Nevermore!'"

This is a reference to "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

"If you bring a smiling visage To the glass you meet a smile"

This quote is a reference to the hymn, "Do not look for wrong and evil", by Alice Cary (1820-1871).

"Davy made enough noise to wake the Seven Sleepers at an unearthly hour Christmas morning, ringing an old cow-bell up and down the stairs."

This is a reference to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a legendary story about a group of young people who hid in a cave outside the city of Ephesus to escape persecution for their Christian faith under the Roman emperor, Decius. Decius ordered for the cave, with the young people asleep inside, to be sealed up. Many years later, an astonished landowner reopened the cave to find the seven sleepers alive, believing that they had only slept for one day.

"They talked of 'cabbages and kings' and hitched their wagons to stars, and came home with appetites that taxed even the Green Gables pantry."

"Cabbages and kings" is another reference to "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll. "Hitched their wagons to stars" is a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1862 essay, "American Civilization": "Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves".

"Babies are such fascinating creatures,' said Anne dreamily. 'They are what I heard somebody at Redmond call "terrific bundles of potentialities". Think of it, Katherine: Homer must have been a baby once, a baby with dimples and great eyes full of life. [...] But I think I'm glad Judas's mother didn't know he was to be Judas,' said Anne softly. 'I hope she never did know."

Homer, an ancient Greek writer, is best known for his two epic poems: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Judas Iscariot, one of the original twelve disciples, betrayed Jesus for thirty silver coins.

"I really have no patience with Genevra. Why didn't she scream when she found herself locked in? When they were hunting everywhere for her surely somebody would have heard her."

Anne is likely referring to the poem, "Genevra", by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle.

"We sat and exchanged civilities about the weather for a few moments, both, as Tacitus remarked a few thousand years ago, 'with countenances adjusted to the occasion'."

Anne is quoting from The Annals by Cornelius Tacitus; a history of the Roman Empire from Tiberius to Nero.

"Pride goeth afore destruction and a haughty spirit afore a fall,"

Ernestine Bugle is quoting from Proverbs 16:18.

"I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doeth it?"

Anne is quoting from Ecclesiastes 2:2.

"I feel so much better since I've confided in you - "touched your soul in shadowland", as Shakespeare says.' 'I think it was Pauline Johnson,' said Anne gently."

Hazel Marr quotes from E. Pauline Johnson's poem, "Moonset", which she mistakenly attributes to Shakespeare.

"With the air of Mary Queen of Scots advancing to the scaffold, Hazel walked to the door and turned there dramatically. 'Farewell, Miss Shirley! I leave you to your conscience."

Mary I of Scotland reigned from 1542 until her death in 1567. She was executed on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, for plotting to assassinate her. In the chapter, Hazel is attempting to make Anne feel guilty for breaking off the engagement between her and Terry Garland, even though she had earlier insisted to Anne that she did not love him.

"Little Elizabeth [is] learning to sing Clementine and carolling about 'herring boxes without topses' everywhere"

This is a reference to the American folk song, "Oh, My Darling Clementine".

"[Gerald and Geraldine] pounced like furies on the unfortunate Ivy, who kicked and shrieked and tried to bite, but was no match for the two of them."

The Furies were female deities of vengeance from Greek mythology, who were ruled by Hades in the Underworld.

"Anne was wicked. 'What about Milton's poems?' 'Milton's poems? ... Oh, that! It wasn't Milton's poems; it was Tennyson's. I reverence Milton, but can't abide Alfred. He's too sickly sweet. Those last two lines of Enoch Arden made me so mad one night I did fire the book through a window. But I picked it up the next day for the sake of the bugle song. I'd forgive anybody for that. It didn't go into George Clarke's lily-pond. That was old Prouty's embroidery."

Here Anne is referring to an alleged incident in which Franklin Westcott threw a volume of John Milton's poems into George Clarke's lily-pond. Mr Westcott denies this by stating that it was, in fact, a volume of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems, which included "Enoch Arden" and "Blow, Bugle, Blow". The last stanza of "Enoch Arden" reads: "So past the strong heroic soul away. / And when they buried him the little port / Had seldom seen a costlier funeral."

"Something attempted, something done has earned a night's repose,"

Anne quotes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Village Blacksmith", after delivering the news of Dovie Westcott's elopement to her father, Mr Franklin Westcott.

"Elizabeth thought of a line from a verse she had learned in Sunday School: 'The little hills rejoice on every side.' Had the man who wrote that ever seen hills like those blue ones over the harbour?"

Elizabeth is quoting from Psalm 65:12.