Notes:Anne's House of Dreams/Cultural references and allusions

"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.

"When she saw me she hurried in, and the wind caught her hair and swirled it all around her — Danaë in her cloud."

Danaë, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and mother to the hero Perseus by Zeus. King Polydectes of Seriphos attempted to woo the beautiful Danaë, who did not reciprocate his feelings. Polydectes agreed not to marry her on the condition that her son, Perseus, could kill the gorgon Medusa and bring back her head, which he did.

"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.