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.

Anne of Green Gables
"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".

"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.

"But there was a passenger dropped off for you – a little girl. She’s sitting out there on the shingles. I asked her to go into the ladies’ waiting room, but she informed me gravely that she preferred to stay outside. 'There was more scope for imagination,' she said. She’s a case, I should say."

'Scope for imagination' is borrowed from Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (Chapter 42, opening lines). The station master quotes Anne's words when explaining to Matthew that there is a girl, not a boy, waiting for him on the platform.

"I wouldn't be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don't you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn't you?"

Here Anne is referring to Act II Scene I of Michael William Balfe's opera, The Bohemian Girl: "I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls / With vassals and serfs by my side".

"I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage."

Here Anne is referring to Act II Scene II of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet".

"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 Thomson. Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? There is a piece in the Fifth Reader - "The Downfall of Poland" - that is just full of thrills."

"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. "The Battle of Hohenlinden" (1803) and "The Fall of Poland" (1799) are poems by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844). "Edinburgh after Flodden" is a poem by the Scottish poet William Edmondstoune Aytoun (1813-1865). The Lady of the Lake (1810) is a long narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The Seasons (1730) is a long poem by the Scottish poet James Thomson (1700-1748).

"The shore road was 'woodsy and wild and lonesome'."

This quote is a reference to John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "Cobbler Keezar's Vision".

"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."

This quote is the answer to the question "What is God?" in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1674).

"Marilla felt more embarrassed than ever. She had intended to teach Anne the childish classic, 'Now I lay me down to sleep'."

"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" is a popular children's prayer which has its origins the eighteenth century.

"I'll send to the manse tomorrow and borrow the Peep of Day series"

The Peep of Day; or, A Series of the Earliest Religious Instruction the Infant Mind is Capable of Receiving was an instructive religious book for children written by Favell Lee Mortimer (1802-1878).

"This isn't poetry, but it makes me feel just the way poetry does. "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." That is just like a line of music."

This quote is a reference to "The Lord's Prayer" from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1662).

"Marilla was as fond of morals as the Duchess in Wonderland"

The Duchess is a character in Lewis Carroll's novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

"[Marilla] understood in dismay that Anne was actually enjoying her valley of humiliation"

This is a reference to The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678).

"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.

"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".

"I sat just as still as I could and the text was Revelations, third chapter, second and third verses. It was a very long text. If I was a minister I'd pick the short, snappy ones."

Revelation 3:2-3 from the New Testament.

"Diana is going to teach me to sing a song called 'Nelly in the Hazel Dell.'"

"Nelly of the Hazel Dell", or "The Hazel Dell" (1853) was a popular song by George Frederick Root.

"Oh dear, I'm afraid Rachel was right from the first. But I've put my hand to the plough and I won't look back."

This quote is a reference to Luke 9:62.

"Alice Andrews is going to bring a new Pansy book next week and we're all going to read it out loud, chapter about, down by the brook."

"Pansy" was the pen name of Isabella Macdonald Alden (1841-1930), who wrote over one hundred Christian story books for children.

"It was like heaping coals of fire on my head."

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 25:22.

"The stars in their courses fight against me"

This quote is a reference to Judges 5:20.

"The Caesar's pageant shorn of Brutus' bust Did but of Rome's best son remind her more,"

This quote is taken from Canto the Fourth of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by George Gordon, Lord Byron.

"[Prissy Andrews] 'climbed the slimy ladder, dark without one ray of light,'"

This quote is a reference to the poem that Prissy reads at the concert: "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" by Rose Hartwick Thorpe (1867).

"When the choir sang 'Far above the Gentle Daisies', Anne gazed at the ceiling as if it were frescoed with angels"

This is a reference to the song "Far above the Gentle Daisies" written by George Cooper and composed by Harrison Millard (1869).

"Mr Phillips gave Mark Antony's oration over the dead body of Caesar in the most heart-stirring tones."

Mark Antony's speech over the dead body of Caesar (44 B.C.), which Mr. Phillips recites at the Christmas concert, was recorded by Dion Cassius in his History of Rome and popularized by William Shakespeare in Act III Scene II of Julius Caesar.

"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 of "Bingen on the Rhine", 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.

"Mr Phillips gave all the Mayflowers he found to Prissy Andrews and I heard him say "sweets to the sweet"."

This quote is a reference to Act V Scene I of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

"We marched in procession down the road, two by two, with our bouquets and wreaths, singing "My Home on the Hill"."

This is a reference to the song "My Home on the Hill" by W. C. Baker (1866).

"[Ruby Gillis] asked if there was to be a Sunday-school picnic this summer. I didn't think that it was a very proper question to ask because it hadn't any connexion with the lesson - the lesson was about Daniel in the lions' den - but Mrs Allen just smiled and said she thought there would be."

This is a reference to chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

"'Mrs Barry had her table decorated,' said Anne, who was not entirely guiltless of the wisdom of the serpent"

This is a reference to chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, where Satan, disguised as a snake, convinces Eve to taste the forbidden fruit. In chapter 21, Anne convinces Marilla to let her decorate the table for the Reverend Allan's visit by appealing to Marilla's dislike of being outdone by Mrs. Barry.

"All went merry as a marriage bell until Anne's layer cake was passed."

This is a reference to line 8 of "The Eve of Waterloo" by George Gordon, Lord Byron.

"For Anne to take things calmly would have been to change her nature. All 'spirit and fire and dew', as she was, the pleasures and pains of life came to her with trebled intensity."

This quote is another reference to "Evelyn Hope" by Robert Browning.

"Now for my father's arm, she said, my woman's heart farewell."

Anne recites "Mary, Queen o' Scots" by Henry Glassford Bell for recitation class and Ruby remarks that the above two lines 'made her blood run cold'.

"I'm bringing [Anne] up and not Rachel Lynde, who'd pick faults in the Angel Gabriel himself if he lived in Avonlea."

Marilla is referring to the Angel Gabriel of the Old and New Testaments, who most notably appears to the Virgin Mary to foretell the birth of Christ in the Gospel of Luke.

"Oh, Marilla, "what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive". That is poetry, but it is true."

Anne quotes from Sir Walter Scott's epic poem, Marmion (1808), after falling foul to vanity and accidentally dying her hair green.

"But it's so ridiculous to have a red-headed Elaine,' mourned Anne. 'I'm not afraid to float down and I'd love to be Elaine. But it's ridiculous just the same. Ruby ought to be Elaine because she is so fair and has such lovely long golden hair - Elaine had "all her bright hair streaming down," you know. And Elaine was the lily maid. Now, a red-haired person cannot be a lily maid."

and

"Well, I'll be Elaine,' said Anne, yielding reluctantly, [...] 'Ruby, you must be King Arthur and Jane will be Guinevere and Diana must be Lancelot. But first you must be the brothers and fathers. We can't have the old dumb servitor because there isn't room for two in the flat when one is lying down. We must pall the barge all its length in blackest samite."

In chapter 28, Anne, Diana, Ruby, and Jane reenact Tennyson's poem, "Lancelot and Elaine", from the Idylls of the Kings (1859-1885); a cycle of twelve poems which retell the legend of King Arthur, his wife Guinevere, and various knights connected with the tale, which are taken from Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485). In "Lancelot and Elaine", Elaine of Astolat falls in love with Lancelot after he accepts her token favour to wear at a tournament, unbeknownst to her that he is having an affair with the Queen, Guinevere. When Lancelot rejects Elaine's love for him, she gives up living and eventually dies from a broken heart. Some time later, Guinevere, while in a jealous rave over Lancelot's neglect of her, throws her diamonds out of the window and into the river below, just as Elaine's funeral barge is passing by. Elaine's body is brought into the castle where Lancelot muses over Elaine's pure love for him and how Guinevere's love for him has rotted away into jealousy. In the first quote given above, Anne quotes directly from "Lancelot and Elaine", "all her bright hair streaming down", as her brothers and father kiss her goodbye and their servant rows away. It is worth noting that in the 1934 and 1985 film versions Anne recites from Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot", which is also based on the legend of Elaine and Lancelot, but differs in some respects (the Lady is cursed to stay in her tower, she only sees Lancelot once through a mirror, and does not have family or friends), and is adapted from the thirteenth-century Italian novella, Donna di Scalotta.

"The stubborn spearsmen still made good Their dark impenetrable wood,"

This quote is another reference to Marmion by Sir Walter Scott; a poem which Miss Stacy made her pupils memorize for their English class.

"Miss Stacy caught me reading Ben-Hur in school yesterday afternoon when I should have been studying my Canadian history."

This is a reference to the religious novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace (1880).

"'What is Gilbert Blythe going to be?' queried Marilla, seeing that Anne was opening her Caesar."

Julius Caesar, a Roman statesman, is also well-known for his Latin works of prose, most notably his military memoirs: The Gallic Wars and The Civil War. Anne reads Caesar's prose for her Latin class.

"Where the Brook and River Meet"

"Where the Brook and River Meet", the title of Chapter 31, is the second line of the third stanza of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Maidenhood".

"Hills peeped o'er hill and Alps on Alps arose."

This quote is a reference to "An Essay on Criticism" by Alexander Pope.

"Oh, Diana, tomorrow the geometry exam comes off and when I think of it it takes every bit of determination I possess to keep from opening my Euclid."

Anne is referring to Euclid of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, also known as the "father of geometry".

"One moonbeam from the forehead to the crown."

This quote is a reference to the Fourth Book of Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Aurora is quite similar to Anne in some respects; namely she is a poor orphan with a lively imagination who is brought up by her no-nonsense maiden aunt and later achieves her aspiration of becoming a successful writer and marries the man she loves.

"Well, we heard him say - didn't we, Jane? - "Who is that girl on the platform with the splendid Titian hair? She has a face I should like to paint.""

This is a reference to Tiziano Vecellio, known in English as "Titian", a leading Italian Renaissance painter of the sixteenth century.

"I ought to be at home studying my Virgil - that horrid old professor gave us twenty lines to start in on tomorrow."

Virgil (70 B.C.-19 B.C), an ancient Roman poet, is best known for his three major works of Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid.

"The Reaper Whose Name is Death"

"The Reaper Whose Name is Death", the title of chapter 37, is a reference to the first line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Reaper and the Flowers, a Psalm of Death". In the poem, the Reaper reaps both the "bearded grain" (the old) and the "flowers" that grow between (i.e. the young).

"Even at Green Gables affairs slipped back into their old groove and work was done and duties fulfilled with regularity as before, although always with the aching sense of 'loss in all familiar things'."

This quote is a reference to Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl by John Greenleaf Whittier (1866).

"When [Anne] finally left [the graveyard] and walked down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dreamlike afterlight - 'a haunt of ancient peace'."

This quote is a reference to "The Palace of Art" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

""God's in His heaven, all's right with the world," whispered Anne softly."

The closing words to Anne of Green Gables are taken from Robert Browning's poem, Pippa Passes (1841).

Anne of Avonlea
"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.

"[Anne] sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse one ripe afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil."

Virgil (70 B.C.-19 B.C), an ancient Roman poet, is best known for his three major works of Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid.

"When Anne entered the schoolroom she was confronted by prim rows of 'shining morning faces'"

This quote is a reference to the famous "All the world's a stage" speech from Act II, Scene VII of As You Like It by William Shakespeare.

"Isn't it something to have started a soul along a path that may end in Shakespeare and Paradise Lost?"

This is a reference to John Milton's epic seventeenth-century poem, Paradise Lost, which explores the war in Heaven and the Fall of Man from the perspective of Lucifer.

"While the children read their verses Anne marshalled her shaky wits into order and looked over the array of little pilgrims to the Grown-up Land."

This quote is an allusion to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress with its use of allegorical place names.

"All Sorts and Conditions of Men ... and Women"

"All Sorts and Conditions of Men ... and Women", the title of Chapter 6, is a reference to Walter Besant's 1882 slum novel, All Sorts and Conditions of Men.

"Bliss is it on such a day to be alive; but to smell dying fir is very heaven. That's two thirds Wordsworth and one third Anne Shirley."

This quote is a reference to William Wordsworth's poem, "The French Revolution as it Appeared to Enthusiasts at its Commencement", which first appeared in the 1805 edition of The Prelude.

"Dora had a 'prunes and prisms' mouth, Davy's was all smiles"

This quote is a reference to Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit (1857), in which the character Mrs General instructs her young charges that uttering the phrase "prunes and prisms" will give an attractive and ladylike shape to the mouth.

"Every morn is a fresh beginning, Every morn is the world made new,"

This quote is a reference to the extended version of Susan Coolidge's poem, "New Every Morning".

"We're to seek for beauty and refuse to see anything else. 'Begone, dull care'"

This quote is a reference to the traditional English song, "Begone Dull Care", which has been dated back as far as the seventeenth century. The song was transcribed and compiled alongside other poems of the oral tradition in Robert Bell's 1857 collection, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England.

"The Substance of Things Hoped For"

"The Substance of Things Hoped For", the title of chapter 16, is a reference to Hebrews 11:1.

"Everything was going well but Anne was beginning to feel nervous. It was surely time for Priscilla and Mrs Morgan to arrive. She made frequent trips to the gate and looked as anxiously down the lane as ever her namesake in the Bluebeard story peered from the tower casement."

This quote is a reference to the fairy tale "Blue Beard", which was first popularized by Charles Perrault in 1697. In the story, Anne, sister-in-law to Blue Beard, keeps a frantic watch from a lofty tower to hasten the arrival of her brothers, so that they might save her sister from her execution.

"Over the mountains of the moon, Down the valley of the shadow."

This quote is a reference to the 1849 poem, "Eldorado", by Edgar Allan Poe. Anne quotes this poem in response to Davy's question about the location of sleep.

"I'll amuse your Aunt Josephine with the "strange eventful history" of this afternoon when I go to town tomorrow. We've had a rather trying time, but it's over now. I've got the platter, and that rain has laid the dust beautifully. So "all's well that ends well"."

"Strange eventful history" is a quote from Jacques' "All the world's a stage" speech from Act II Scene VII of William Shakespeare's As You Like It. "All's well that ends well" is a reference to Shakespeare's play, All's Well That Ends Well.

"There was a moment's stillness ... and then from the woods over the river came a multitude of fairy echoes, sweet, elusive, silvery, as if all the 'horns of elfland' were blowing against the sunset."

This quote is a reference to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Blow, Bugle, Blow".

"Anne seems to me real stately and like a queen. But I'd like Kerrenhappuch if it happened to be your name."

Here Diana makes a reference to Kerenhappuch, the third daughter of Job in the Bible.

"Anne and Diana came with the wholesome joy and exhilaration of the outer existence, which Miss Lavendar, 'the world forgetting, by the world forgot', had long ceased to share"

This quote is a reference to line 208 of Alexander Pope's poem, "Eloisa to Abelard".

"'I only squealed once,' said Davy proudly. 'My garden was all smashed flat,' he continued mournfully, 'but so was Dora's,' he added in a tone which indicated that there was yet balm in Gilead."

This quote is a reference to Jeremiah 8:22.

"Under Mr Irving's praise Anne's face "burst flower-like into rosy bloom""

This quote is a reference to the long narrative poem Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl by John Greenleaf Whittier, first published by Ticknor and Fields in 1866.

"[Anne] turned to confront Charlotta the Fourth, who was in the hall, all 'nods and becks and wreathed smiles'."

This quote is a reference to John Milton's pastoral poem, "L'Allegro" (1645).

"Perhaps some realization came to [Marilla] that after all it was better to have, like Anne, 'the vision and faculty divine'"

This quote is a reference to line 79 of "The Excursion: Being a Portion of the Recluse" by William Wordsworth.

"Anne, of late, had not been without her suspicions that Diana was proving false to the melancholy Byronic hero of her early dreams. But as 'things seen are mightier than things heard,', or suspected, the realization that it was actually so came to her with almost the shock of perfect surprise."

This quote is a reference to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "Enoch Arden" (1864). In the poem, Enoch is a happily married fisherman who, due to financial difficulties, is forced to undertake work as a merchant seaman and, through misfortune, becomes shipwrecked on a desert island. After ten years, Enoch is able to return home, only to find his wife, Annie, happily married to another man, believing Enoch to be long dead. Enoch never reveals himself to his wife, not wanting to mar her happiness, and dies of a broken heart. "Enoch Arden" is a poem very fitting with the themes of Anne of Avonlea, of romance, separation, and misunderstandings, (Mr and Mrs J. A. Harrison, and Miss Lavendar and Stephen Irving) and Gilbert's opinion that the love story of Lavendar and Stephen would 'have been more beautiful still, Anne, if there had been no separation or misunderstanding'.

"Like the helmet of Navarre, Charlotta's blue bows waved ever in the thickest of the fray."

This quote is a reference to Bertha Runkle's 1901 historical romance novel, The Helmet of Navarre.

"By noon the rooms were decorated, the table beautifully laid; and upstairs was waiting a bride, 'adorned for her husband'."

This quote is a reference to Revelation 21:2.

"The two upper bows rather gave the impression of overgrown wings sprouting from Charlotta's neck, somewhat after the fashion of Raphael's cherubs."

This quote is a reference to Raphael's 1512 painting, Sistine Madonna.

"[Anne] sat down under the silver poplar to wait for Gilbert, feeling very tired but still unweariedly thinking 'long, long thoughts'."

This quote is a reference to the poem "My Lost Youth" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which was first published in Putnam's Magazine in August 1855.

Anne of the Island
"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".

"Harvest is ended and summer is gone."

Paraphrased from Jeremiah 8:20.

"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-parlour 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").

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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 "The Sorrows of Werther", by William Makepeace Thackeray.

"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.

"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).

"... 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.

"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.

"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.

"I ain't scared now to say "if I should die before I wake""

This quote is a reference to the popular eighteenth-century children's prayer, "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep". Davy says this in reply to Anne after promising not to swear again.

"To sleep Jane went easily and speedily; but though very unlike Macbeth in most respects, she had certainly contrived to murder sleep for Anne"

This quote is a reference to Act II, Scene II of William Shakespeare's Macbeth where Macbeth murders Duncan in his bed chamber. Jane had just proposed to Anne on behalf of her brother and was somewhat resentful toward the rejection.

"Stop it Pris. "The best is yet to be." Like the old Roman, we'll find a house or build one."

This quote is a reference to the poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning.

"'I feel as if something mysterious were going to happen right away - "by the pricking of my thumbs,"' said Anne, as they went up the slope."

This quote is from line 44 of Act IV, Scene I of Macbeth by William Shakespeare: "By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes".

"Their names are Gog and Magog. Gog looks to the right and Magog to the left."

The names Gog and Magog, the names of Miss Patty's two ornamental china dogs, are taken from Revelation 20:8.

"Girls, dear, I'm tired to death. I feel like the man without a country - or was it without a shadow?"

In this quote Philippa is alluding to Edward Everett Hale's short story, "The Man Without a Country" (1863).

"Now you -' 'Toil not, neither do I spin,' finished Philippa."

Here Philippa is quoting Matthew 6:28: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin".

"The Way of Transgressors"

"The Way of Transgressors", the title of chapter 13, is a reference to Proverbs 13:15.

"'I had so,' cried Davy, but in the voice of one who doth protest too much"

This quote is a reference to Act III, Scene II of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

"So spake Anne loftily, little dreaming of the valley of humiliation awaiting her"

This quote is a reference to The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678).

"'Oh; Gilbert, not you,' implored Anne, in an et tu, Brute tone."

This quote is a reference to the apparent last words spoken by Caesar as he is stabbed to death and recognizes Brutus among the assassins; 'et tu, Brute' was popularized in William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. Here Gilbert congratulates Anne on winning the Rollings Reliable prize, much to Anne's dismay over the whole affair.

"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.

"But, like Kipling's cat, he 'walked by himself'."

This quote is a reference to Rudyard Kipling's short story, "The Cat That Walked by Himself", which appears in the collection of Just So Stories (1902).

"He's a beautiful cat - this is, his disposition is beautiful. She called him Joseph because his coat is of many colours."

This quote is a reference to the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis.

"[Anne] found Avonlea in the grip of such an early, cold, and stormy winter as even the 'oldest inhabitant' could not recall."

This quote is a likely reference to Mark Twain's speech, "The Weather", with a toast to "The Oldest Inhabitant - The Weather of New England".

"What are you reading?" "Pickwick" "That's a book that always makes me hungry,' said Phil. 'There's so much good eating in it. The characters seem always to be revelling on ham and eggs and milk punch. I generally go on a cupboard rummage after reading Pickwick.The mere thought reminds me that I'm starving."

Here Anne and Phil are referring to Charles Dickens' first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836), more commonly known as The Pickwick Papers.

"[Charlotta] wore her hair now in an enormous pompadour and had discarded the blue ribbon bows of auld lang syne"

This quote is a reference to Robert Burns' poem, "Auld Lang Syne", which popularized the traditional Scots folk song.

""Nobody axed me, sir, she said" - at least, nobody but that horrid little Dan Ranger"

Here Anne references the traditional English nursery rhyme, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?", while explaining to Aunt Jamesina why she avoided the college football match.

"Silly Phil! You know quite well that Jonas loves you." "But - he won't tell me so. And I can't make him. He looks it, I'll admit. But speak-to-me-only-with-thine-eyes isn't a really reliable reason for embroidering doilies and hem-stitching table-cloths."

This quote is a reference to Ben Jonson's poem, "To Celia".

""The woods were God's first temples," quoted Anne softly."

Here Anne quotes William Cullen Bryant's poem, "A Forest Hymn".

"Were not half the Redmond girls wildly envious? And what a charming sonnet he had sent her, with a box of violets, on her birthday! Anne knew every word of it by heart. It was very good stuff of its kind, too. Not exactly up to the level of Keats or Shakespeare - even Anne was not so deeply in love to think that. But it was very tolerable magazine verse. And it was addressed to her - not to Laura or Beatrice or the Maid of Athens, but to her, Anne Shirley."

This quote alludes to famous instances of romantic correspondence and the history of the sonnet form, which is commonly used to express love. In the first instance, the Romantic poet, John Keats (b. 1795), famously wrote a number of devoted love letters and sonnets to his fiancée, Fanny Brawne, before his untimely death in 1821. In the second instance, William Shakespeare composed a collection of 154 sonnets, the first 126 to a young man, and the last 28 to a woman. As for the women alluded to, “Laura” is a reference to the mysterious muse to whom the Italian poet Petrarch addressed over 300 sonnets with his undying love, most of which appear in The Canzoniere; “Beatrice” is a Shakespearean character and the subject of Benedick’s sonnet, which he composes in Act V Scene II of the romantic-comedy, Much Ado About Nothing; and the “Maid of Athens” is the title of a love poem written by George Gordon, Lord Byron to the young Teresa Makri while he resided in Greece.

"Gilbert would never have dreamed of writing a sonnet to her eyebrows. But then, Gilbert could see a joke."

This quote is an allusion to Jacques' "All the world's a stage" speech from Shakespeare's As You Like It; 'And then the lover, / Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad, / Made to his mistress' eyebrow'.

"So wags the world away," quoted Gilbert practically and a trifle absently."

This quote is a reference to Ellen Mackay Hutchinson's poem, "So Wags the World Away".

"Oh, why must a minister's wife be supposed to utter only prunes and prisms?"

Here Phil is quoting Mrs General, the class-conscious governess from Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, who believes that the phrase "prunes and prisms" will give an attractive and ladylike shape to the mouth.

"A pouring rainy night like this, coming after a hard day's grind, would squelch anyone but a Mark Tapley."

In this quote, Anne is referring to the ever cheerful character, Mark Tapley, from Charles Dickens' novel, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

"The roof leaked and the rain came pattering down on my bed. There was no poetry in that. I had get up in the "mirk midnight" and chivvy round to pull the bedstead out of the drip"

In this quote, Stella references Robert Burns' 1793 poem, "Lord Gregory".

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!""

This quote is a reference to John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "Maud Muller".

"Potent, wise, and reverend Seniors," quoted Phil."

Phil adapts the line "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors," from William Shakespeare's Othello as she reflects on her time at Redmond.

"I've tried the world - it wears no more The colouring of romance it wore,"

Here Anne quotes two lines from William Cullen Bryant's poem, "The Rivulet".

"Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning."

Anne quotes this line from Psalms 30:5 after learning that Gilbert will recover from his illness.

"I've come to ask you to go for one of our old-time rambles through September woods and "over hills where spices grow", this afternoon," said Gilbert"

This quote is a reference to Isaac Watts' hymn, "Who is This Fair One in Distress?".

"But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert sadly. "It will be a three years before I finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls." Anne laughed. "I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU. You see I'm quite as shameless as Phil about it. Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more 'scope for the imagination' without them."

Here a deliberate reference is made by Montgomery to the second chapter of Anne of Green Gables ("Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised") where, like chapter 41 of Anne of the Island, there is an ending and a new beginning for Anne, as she quotes again from Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey and Michael William Blafe's The Bohemian Girl. Yet, as Anne has grown as a character, she no longer relies so heavily on fairy tales, as her other dreams, of being loved and wanted, have been realized.

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

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

"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.

"There are times when I feel myself that I could cheerfully hand any and all of the Pringles 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.

"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", more commonly known as the "Funeral March", was popularized by Frederic Chopin in his Piano Sonata No.2.

"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 Grayson is quoting from Psalm 65:12.

Anne's House of Dreams
"Our kin Have built them temples, and therein Pray to the gods we know; and dwell In little houses lovable."

- Anne's House of Dreams – Epigraph

This quote is from Rupert Brooke's 1907 poem, "The Song of the Pilgrims". Rupert Brooke was an English solider during the First World War who wrote a number of war sonnets before his death in April 1915. Anne's House of Dreams was published in 1917, two years after his death, while the war was still ongoing.

"Mrs Harmon Andrews told me when I came home that I wouldn't likely find married life as much better than teaching as I expected. Evidently Mrs Harmon is of Hamlet's opinion that it may be better to bear the ills that we have than fly to others that we know not of."

Anne is referring to the famous "To Be or Not To Be" speech from Act III Scene I of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

"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!"

"Bingen on the Rhine" is mentioned again just before Anne's wedding, by Diana, when she and Anne are reminiscing.

"[Roy] is married and his wife is a sweet little thing and they're perfectly happy. Everything works together for good. Jo and the Bible say that, and they are pretty good authorities."

Philippa is referring to Romans 8:28.

"I've read somewhere that "our dead are never dead until we have forgotten them". Matthew will never be dead to me, for I can never forget him."

Anne is referring to chapter 10 of Adam Bede by George Eliot.

"I never saw such a face except in pictures. And her hair! It made me think of Browning's "cord of gold" and "gorgeous snake"!"

This is a reference to Robert Browning's poem, "In a Gondola".

"A magic casement opening on the foam Of perilous sea in fairy lands forlorn,"

This quote is from "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats.

"I never see a ship sailing out of the channel, or a gull soaring over the sand-bar, without wishing I were on board the ship or had wings, not like a dove "to fly away and be at rest", but like a gull, to sweep out into the very heart of a storm."

Anne is quoting from Psalms 55:6: "And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest".

"I though that die I would to see old Joe Bradshaw, who is an infidel and never darkens the door of a church, singing "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" with great gusto and fervour."

Cornelia Bryant is referring to the hymn, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" (1868), which was written by Frances Cosby and composed by William Doane.

"You don't have to pay anything - all that sea and sky free - "without money and without price"."

Captain Jim is quoting from Isaiah 55:1.

"Captain Jim had the gift of the born story-teller, whereby 'unhappy, far-off things' can be brought vividly before the hearer in all their pristine poignancy."

This quote is a reference to "The Solitary Reaper" by William Wordsworth.

"Sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until you die,"

This quote is taken from "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. In the poem, Ulysses (known in Greek mythology as Odysseus) is now an old sailor and returned safely to his homeland of Ithaca, but is restless and discontent over the fact that his adventures have come to an end.

"tales of land and sea And whatsoever might betide The great forgotten world outside."

This quote is a reference to the poem, "The Hanging of the Crane", by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"Just one of earth's millions of homes, Anne-girl – but ours – ours – our beacon in "a naughty world"."

Here Gilbert quotes from Act V Scene I of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.

"I have no respect for Robert Baxter. He turned Methodist just because the Presbyterian choir happened to be singing "Behold the bridegroom cometh" for a collection piece when him and Margaret walked up the aisle the Sunday after they were married."

This is a reference to the hymn, "Behold the bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night", which was translated into English by Gerard Moultrie in 1864.

"Just now my garden is like faith – the substance of things hoped for."

Here Anne quotes from Hebrews 11:1.

"Speaking of heresy, reminds me, doctor – I've brought back that book you lent me – that Natural Law in the Spiritual World – I didn't read more'n a third of it. I can read sense, and I can read nonsense, but that book is neither one nor the other."

Gilbert had lent Cornelia Henry Drummond's 1883 religious book on natural science, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, which she evidently did not enjoy.

"The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, dearie,' she said from her own tears. 'Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Susan Baker quotes from Job 1:21 when trying to comfort Anne over the loss of Joyce: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord".

"I can only be thankful that Anne's life was spared,' said Marilla, with a shiver, recalling those hours of darkness when the girl she loved was passing through the valley of the shadow."

This quote is a reference to Psalms 23:4: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me".

"You'll see your little Joyce again some day.' 'But she won't be my baby,' said Anne, with trembling lips. 'Oh, she may be, as Longfellow says, "a fair maiden clothed with celestial grace" – but she'll be a stranger to me."

Here Anne is referring to "Resignation" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a poem which states that a child who has died, has not really died, as they are waiting for their parents in Heaven.

"Old houses don't vanish easily on this enchanted coast,' smiled Anne. 'This is a "land where all things always seem the same" – nearly always, at least."

Anne quotes from "The Lotos-Eaters" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem concerns Odysseus and his men who have nearly reached their destination of home, but, after being blown onto a mysterious island, become melancholic and philosophical as a result of eating lotoses, which send them into a dazed trance.

"Mr Ford wants to hear some of your stories, Captain Jim,' said Anne. 'Tell him the one about the captain who went crazy and imagined he was the Flying Dutchman."

Here Anne is referring to the captain of the "Flying Dutchman"; a mythical ghost ship which is destined to sail the seas forever and, if sighted, is considered to be an omen of terrible doom. Thomas Moore's poem, "Written on passing Deadman's Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence" (1804), sets the location of the ship, significantly, off the coast of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is also worth noting that Moore's poem appeared in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's collection, Poems of Places (1876-79); a collection edited by one of Montgomery's favourite poets.

"There's something in the world amiss Will be unriddled by and by,"

Here Anne quotes from "The Miller's Daughter" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"Anne,' he said slowly, 'lend me your ears. I want to talk with you about something."

Gilbert quotes from Mark Antony's speech from Act III, Scene II of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare when he broaches the subject of restoring Dick Moore's memory to Anne.

"Because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence,"

Here Gilbert quotes from "Oenone" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson when arguing his case to Anne, to which she scoffs and responds: "That is so like a man".

"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Gilbert quotes from John 8:32 to back up his decision to inform Leslie of the operation and describes it as the 'greatest and grandest verse in the Bible', which Anne later concedes when Leslie is set free from her marriage as Dick is revealed to be, in fact, his cousin, George Moore.

"Four Winds won't be the same place when Captain Jim "sets out to sea",' agreed Gilbert."

This quote is a reference to "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"The Truth Makes Free"

"The Truth Makes Free", the title of chapter 31, is another reference to John 8:32, where George Moore recovers his memory and Leslie learns that she is a widow and has been for a number of years.

"Softly and clearly, while the sea-wind blew in on them, Anne repeated the beautiful lines of Tennyson's wonderful swan song – 'Crossing the Bar'. The old captain kept time gently with his sinewy hand."

This is another reference to "Crossing the Bar" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which is used to foreshadow Captain Jim's death in the novel.

"Ah, well, man was made to mourn, Mrs Doctor, dear. That sounds as if it ought to be in the Bible, but they tell me a person named Burns wrote it."

Susan is referring to the poem, "Man was Made to Mourn: A Dirge", by Robert Burns.

"[Miss Cornelia] sat in her favourite rocker in unusual idleness. She sewed not, neither did she spin."

This quote is a reference to Matthew 6:28.

"tak a cup o' kindness yet for auld lang syne."

Captain Jim quotes from Robert Burns' poem, "Auld Lang Syne" (1788), at his last meeting with Anne and Leslie.

"Yes, he sleeps – well,' he said quietly. 'Anne, Captain Jim has crossed the bar."

Gilbert utters these words, which also form the title of the chapter, to Anne upon discovering the body of Captain Jim one morning as a euphemism for his death. The reference is to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, "Crossing the Bar", which had been previously mentioned on two occasions.

Anne of Ingleside
"Perhaps there's more in a name than Shakespeare allowed. Don't grudge Anne Cordelia her fancies, Diana. I'm always sorry for children who don't spend a few years in fairyland."

Here Anne refers to the quote "What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet;" from Act II Scene II of William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, when Diana suggests that Anne Cordelia takes after her namesake more than her own mother.

"There was a lane curtained with wild cherry blossoms; a grassy field full of tiny spruce-trees just starting in life and looking like elvish things that had squatted down among the grasses; brooks not yet 'too broad for leaping'; starflowers under the firs ... sheets of curly young ferns ... and a birch-tree"

This description of the countryside is given by the narrator on the day of Anne and Diana's picnic in Avonlea. "Too broad for leaping" is a reference to the poem "With Rue My Heart is Laden" by A. E. Housman.

"I had a feeling that something was going to happen when I went to bed tonight,' said Aunt Mary Maria, pressing both hands to her temples. 'When I read my nightly chapter in the Bible the words, "Ye know not what a day may bring forth," seemed to stand out from the page, as it were."

Aunt Mary Maria is referring to Proverbs 27:1: "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth".

"[Aunt Mary Maria] actually slapped Nan one day when the doctor and Mrs Doctor were both away ... slapped her ... just because Nan called her "Mrs Mefusaleh" ... having heard that imp of Ken Ford saying it."

"Mefusaleh" is used as an insult by Nan to imply that Aunt Mary Maria is extremely old. Nan is referring to Methusaleh of the Old Testament in the Bible, who is mentioned as having been the oldest living man at 969 years: "And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died".

"Oh, I am very well aware that there is a comical side to a toad under a harrow, Miss Dew. But the question is, does the toad see it?"

To be beneath the harrow is a proverbial saying to describe a person in distress and danger. It is also a likely reference to Rudyard Kipling's poem, "Pagett M.P.": "The toad beneath the harrow knows / Exactly where each tooth-point goes".

"And then she lectured us on our folly, and warned us not to let the sun go down on our wrath."

Aunt Maria Maria gives martial advice to Anne and Gilbert, as she mistakenly believes them to have quarreled, by quoting from Ephesians 4:26: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath".

"[Aunt Mary Maria] looked with disapproval at the present Little Elizabeth had sent Anne from Paris ... a beautiful little bronze reproduction of Artemis of the Silver Bow."

This is a reference to the Greek goddess Artemis, known in Roman mythology as Diana, who was goddess of the hunt, the natural environment, and, significantly, archery. As a religious woman, Aunt Mary Maria dismisses the ornament on the grounds of it being "heathen".

"Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house lest he weary of thee and hate thee."

Susan comes across this quote from Proverbs 25:17 while reading her nightly chapter of the Bible and thinks how fitting it is for Aunt Mary Maria.

"Aunt Mary Maria lifted a long, thin, knobbly hand. "Don't let us discuss it, Annie. I want peace ... just peace. "A wounded spirit who can bear?""

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 18:14: "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?".

"Tiger lilies were 'burning bright' along the walk and whiffs of honeysuckle went and came on the wings of the dreaming wind."

"Burning bright" is a quote from the first line of William Blake's poem "The Tyger", which appears in the collection of Songs of Experience (1794).

"Last fall, when that valuable horse took sick ... worth four hundred if a dollar ... instead of sending for the Lowbridge vet she "went to the Bible" and turned up a verse: "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." So send for the vet she would not and the horse died."

This quote is a reference to Job 1:21. Here Miss Cornelia informs Anne of Mary Churchill's unusual habit of "going to the Bible" instead of to church, and turning up Bible verses to suit her actions.

"I was afraid it would break out again some day. I've done my best, but you can't reform a born matchmaker. She has a positive passion for it. The number of matches she has made is incredible. I couldn't sleep o' nights if I had such responsibilities on my conscience."

Gilbert teases Anne when she announces her intention to play the matchmaker to Stella Chase and Alden Churchill. "Sleep o' nights" is a reference to Act I Scene II of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Let me have men about me that are fat; / Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights".

"Richard Chase had a familiar in the shape of a yellow cat of abnormal size which now climbed up on his knee. He stroked it tenderly. 'Thomas the Rhymer' gives the world assurance of a cat,' he said. 'Don't you, Thomas? Look at your Aunt Cornelia, Rhymer. Observe the baleful glances she is casting at you out of orbs created to express only kindness and affection."

Thomas the Rhymer, the name of Richard Chase's cat, is a reference to the legendary Scottish figure who was allegedly kidnapped by the Queen of Elfland and returned with the power of prophesy. Thomas the Rhymer is also the subject of a Scottish ballad, which was extended and popularized by Sir Walter Scott.

"Do you know, Mrs Elliott,' said Richard Chase solemnly, 'I have a secret leaning towards evolution myself.' 'So you've told me before. Well, believe what you want to Dick Chase ... just like a man. Thank God, nobody could ever make me believe that I descended from a monkey."

Here Miss Cornelia and Richard Chase discuss Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory from On the Origins of Species (1859).

Rilla of Ingleside
"'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. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Chronicles of Avonlea
"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".