When Mother Tucked Us In by L.M. Montgomery

In January 1907, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "When Mother Tucked Us In" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."

Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:


Here is the full text of the poem:

WHEN MOTHER TUCKED US IN
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

The sweetest memory of all,

Which time from us can never win,

Comes when the dusking shadows fall

And winds their nightly rune begin,—

The memory of those olden eves

When mother tucked us in.

Tired from our play, and glad to rest

When twilight brought its calm-eyed star,

And in its hush the yellow moon

Rose over purple hills afar

To shine on fields whose dewy peace

No dream of strife might mar.

And yet again we hear the croon

Of winds around the old low eaves

Of the brown house where we were born,

And in the murmuring poplar leaves,—

How sweet and subtle seems again

The spell remembrance weaves!

Upon us fell the gracious boon

Of childhood’s rest; we knew no care,

We only felt a gentle hand

Upon the tangles of our hair,

We only heard in that dim room

A mother’s tender prayer.

And now we walk the busy world

With all its maze of toil and sin,

But still a rescuing talisman

We bear our secret hearts within,—

The memory of those sacred hours

When mother tucked us in.

Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1907, January). When Mother Tucked Us In. The Farm Journal. 31(1): 18. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1907-01_31_1/page/18/mode/2up

Created October 16, 2022.
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Dawn by L.M. Montgomery

In April 1911, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "Dawn" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."

Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:


Here is the full text of the poem:

DAWN
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

There’s a silken fringe of light
On the ashen skirts of night,
And a fire-shot ruby rim
On the eastern hilltops dim,

And a rare,

Untainted air

Sweet from slopes all crystal dewed,
And many a clover solitude
Where night benedictions brood

At the dawn.

Hark! a burst of winged song
Floats the listening air along—
All the blithesome hush is stirred
By the rapture of a bird!

And the sky

Is clear and high

Over dells astar with flowers
Still begemmed with dewy showers,
Dreaming of the after hours

At the dawn.

Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1911, April). My Queen. The Farm Journal. 35(4): 244. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1911-04_35_4/page/244/mode/2up

Created October 15, 2022.
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My Queen by L.M. Montgomery

In March 1907, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "My Queen" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."

Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:


Here is the full text of the poem:

MY QUEEN
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

She rules a kingdom small and fair,
Her throne is a worn rocking-chair.
Most gracious and belov'd is she,
With all her subjects at her knee,
And never could a monarch view
Subjects more loyal and more true.

My little queen with holy eyes,
Her rule is tender, firm and wise:
Content and happiness are found
Within her tiny realm's bound,
And no gemmed circlet can compare
With her bright crown of sunny hair.

My little queen with gentle heart,
Within my life she reigns apart;
To make her earthly kingdom dear
And bring the breath of heaven near,
With wifely faith and mother care,
My lady of the rocking-chair.


Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1907, March). My Queen. The Farm Journal. 31(3): 166. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1907-03_31_3/page/166/mode/2up

Created October 13, 2022.
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Milking Time by L.M. Montgomery

In May 1902, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "Milking Time" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."

Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:



Here is the full text of the poem:

MILKING TIME
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

Dusking fields that are damp with dew,
Skies of crocus and rose and blue,
After-lights on the far hill rim,
Tremulous twilight in valleys dim,
Brooks atune with a limpid chime—
Down at the bars it is milking time.

Pale-hued clovers with creamy crowns,
Buttercups in their golden gowns,
Wind-blown pines at the pasture bars,
Pearl-white glimmer of early stars,
Breezes lilting a wordless rhyme—
Down in the fields it is milking time.

Brown-eyed lassie and sturdy lad,
Laughter and mirth of hearts made glad,
Loitering couples and lagging feet—
Never an hour of the day so sweet!
Youth and love in the summer's prime
Find each other at milking time.


Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1902, May). Milking Time. The Farm Journal. 26(5): 161. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1902-05_26_5/mode/2up

Created October 12, 2022.
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Indian Summer by L.M. Montgomery

One hundred and twenty years ago, in October 1902, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "Indian Summer" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."

L.M. Montgomery's poem was featured on the first page of the journal. Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:



Here is the full text of the poem:

INDIAN SUMMER
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY

In the sun-warm valleys all sweet and low,
Shy, tender murmurs come and go

Among pale grasses; and far away

O’er the calm, blue rim of an upland still
And the peak of a far, light-smitten hill,

Wind-music drifts adown the day.

Perfect peace of a year fulfilled
Cometh now when the world is stilled

And, forgetting its turmoil of springtime days

And its later fever, takes its rest
In a golden completeness no storms molest

While the benediction of autumn stays.

Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1902, October). Indian Summer. The Farm Journal. 26(10): 305. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1902-10_26_10/mode/2up

Created October 11, 2022.
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L.M. Montgomery's Poetry

L.M. Montgomery is better known for her novels than her poetry though she published approximately 500 poems during her lifetime. In 1916, Montgomery published a volume of poetry entitled The Watchman and Other Poems. The majority of L.M. Montgomery's poems are devoted to nature, particularly the landscape of Prince Edward Island, and rural life on the sea shore. Montgomery's love of poetry is reflected in many of her novels where characters quote poetry or recite poems and ballads. Just one example is Anne Shirley reciting and reenacting Alfred Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" in Anne of Green Gables.

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Created February 16, 2002. Last updated March 25, 2021.
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Spring Song by L. M. Montgomery

Spring Song
by L.M. Montgomery

O gypsy winds that pipe and sing
In budding boughs of beech,
I know I hear the laugh of spring
In all your silver speech.

O little mists that hide and curl
In hollows wild and green,
I know you will come in gauze and pearl
To wait upon your queen.

O little seed of mellow earth
Where rain and sunshine kiss,
I know the quivering joy of birth
Throbs in your chrysalis.

O Hope, you blossom on my way
Like violet from the clod,
And Love makes rosy all the grey
When spring comes back from God.

Poem published in Verse and Reverse by Members of the Toronto Women's Press Club (1922).

Image Credit:
Illustration of Violets by Louis-Aimé Martin in Nouveau langage des fleurs, ou, Parterre de flore : contenant le symbole et le langage des fleurs, leur histoire et leur origine mythologique, ainsi que les plus jolis vers composés a ce sujet (1832). From Biodiversity Heritage Library. Public Domain.

Created February 19, 2002. Last updated October 8, 2022.
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A World of Songs: Selected Poems, 1894-1921

A World of Songs: Selected Poems, 1894-1921 by L.M. Montgomery and edited by Benjamin Lefebvre was published by University of Toronto Press in January 2019. A part of "The L.M. Montgomery Library," this book reprints a collection 50 poems by L.M. Montgomery that were published over a period of 25 years.


Here is the description of the volume from University of Toronto Press:

Celebrated as a novelist and made famous by her novel Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, L.M. Montgomery (1874–1942) is far less known for also writing and publishing hundreds of poems over a period of half a century. Although this output included a chapbook and a full-length collection in which she presented herself primarily as a nature poet, most of her poems appeared in periodicals, including women’s magazines, farm papers, faith-based periodicals, daily and weekly newspapers, and magazines for children. As a shrewd businesswoman, she learned to find the balance between literary quality and commercial saleability and continued to publish poetry even though it paid less than short fiction.

A World of Songs: Selected Poems, 1894–1921, the second volume in The L.M. Montgomery Library, gathers a selection of fifty poems originally published across a twenty-five-year period. Benjamin Lefebvre organizes this work within the context of Montgomery’s life and career, claiming her not only as a nature poet but also as the author of a wider range of "songs": of place, of memory, of lamentation, of war, of land and sea, of death, and of love. Many of these poems echo motifs that readers of Montgomery’s novels will recognize, and many more explore surprising perspectives through the use of male speakers. These poems offer today’s readers a new facet of the career of Canada’s most enduringly popular author.

This book collects a sample of fifty poems by L.M. Montgomery originally published in periodicals across a quarter of a century. It discusses this work in the context of early Canadian poetry and North American periodical culture of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Reviews

"The collection of fifty poems published over a twenty-five-year period, beginning in 1894 with the first, is not only the second volume in The L.M. Montgomery Library but a step in a major reconsideration of her poetry."
—Anne Burke, Prairie Journal

"L.M. Montgomery’s verse has considerably more merit than that of many popular versifiers and yet has been unduly neglected, even by Montgomery scholars. A World of Songs expands the current limited horizon of Montgomery’s verse and possesses biographical/historical interest, including insights into publishing verse in the late Romantic period."
—Kevin McCabe, co-editor of The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery

The book includes the following contents:

Acknowledgments
A Note on the Author
Abbreviations
Preface

OVERTURE
The Gable Window

PRELUDE
The Poet’s Thought

SONGS OF PLACE
In Lovers’ Lane
The Fir Lane
In an Old Garden
The Old Home Calls
The Exile
The Summons

SONGS OF MEMORY
Three Days
Companioned
Do You Remember?
Memory Pictures

INTERLUDE
The Singer

SONGS OF LAMENTATION
Irrevocable
I Would Be Well
Night Watches
If I Had Known
The Book
Longing
The Mother

SONGS OF WAR
The Last Prayer
The Three Songs
We Who Wait
Our Women

INTERLUDE
One of the Shepherds

SONGS OF LAND AND SEA
When the Fishing Boats Go Out
When the Fishing Boats Come In
Rain in the Woods
My Pictures
The Wind in the Poplars
The Sea-Shell
Before Storm
A Shore Picture
The Sea to the Shore

SONGS OF DEATH
Too Late
I Have Buried My Dead
Omega
An Old Man’s Grave
The Treasures

SONGS OF LOVE
If Love Should Come
Assurance
The Gray Silk Gown
On the Bridge
Gratitude
With Tears They Buried You To-day
Forever
To One Hated
The Lover’s Catechism

POSTLUDE
The Poet

CODA
What I Would Ask of Life

Afterword

Notes
Bibliography
Index by Title
Index by Date
Index by First Line

ISBN: 9781487505097


Image credit:
Book cover of A World of Songs: Selected Poems, 1894-1921.

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Created February 10, 2019. Last updated May 6, 2024.
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The Blythes are Quoted

The Blythes are Quoted by L.M. Montgomery and edited by Benjamin Lefebvre was published in 2009. L.M. Montgomery had originally prepared her manuscript for this book prior to her death by suicide, but it was not published during her lifetime. In 1974, editors at McGraw-Hill Ryerson restructured the manuscript and published it as The Road to Yesterday. This version of the book included 14 short stories and one poem from the original manuscript, but it did not include L.M. Montgomery's interspersed narrative and conversational sections. The collection also omitted one of the short stories ("Some Fools and a Saint") and most of the poems from the original manuscript.

The Blythes are Quoted restores L.M. Montgomery's original manuscript structure and components. The book is divided into two parts, with the first part occurring before the Great War and the second part taking place after the war. The book depicts several evenings in Anne and Gilbert Blythe's household, during which Anne recites poetry. Following each poem, the Blythes have short episodes of conversation and commentary. Fifteen short stories are interspersed throughout the book. All of the short stories include mentions of the Blythe family or have appearances by members of the family.


The Blythes are Quoted includes the following contents:

Forward by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly

PART ONE

A note from L.M. Montgomery
"The Piper" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Some Fools and a Saint" (short story)

Twilight at Ingleside (narrative vignette)
"I Wish You" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Old Path Round the Shore" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Guest Room in the Country" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"An Afternoon with Mr. Jenkins" (short story)

The Second Evening
"The New House" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Robin Vespers" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Night" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Man and Woman" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Retribution" (short story)

The Third Evening
"There Is a House I Love" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Sea Song" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Twins Pretend" (short story)

The Fourth Evening
"To a Desired Friend" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Fancy’s Fool" (short story)

The Fifth Evening
"Midsummer Day" (poem by Anne Shirley)
"Remembered" (poem by Anne Shirley)
"A Dream Comes True" (short story)

The Sixth Evening
"Farewell to an Old Room" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Haunted Room" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Song of Winter" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"Penelope Struts Her Theories" (short story)

The Seventh Evening
"Success" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Gate of Dream" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"An Old Face" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Reconciliation" (short story)
"The Cheated Child" (short story)
"Fool’s Errand" (short story)
"The Pot and the Kettle" (short story)


PART TWO

Another Ingleside Twilight
"Interlude" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Come, Let Us Go" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"A June Day" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Wind of Autumn" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"The Wild Places" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"For Its Own Sake" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Change" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"I Know" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Brother Beware" (short story)

The Second Evening
"The Wind" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Bride Dreams" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"May Song" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Here Comes the Bride" (short story)

The Third Evening
"The Parting Soul" (poem by Walter Blythe and Anne Blythe)
"My House" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Memories" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"A Commonplace Woman" (short story)

The Fourth Evening
"Canadian Twilight" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Oh, We Will Walk with Spring Today" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Grief" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Room" (poem by Anne Blythe)
"The Road to Yesterday" (short story)

Au Revoir
"I Want" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"The Pilgrim" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"Spring Song" (poem by Walter Blythe)
"The Aftermath" (poem by Walter Blythe)

Afterword by Benjamin Lefebvre
A Note on the Text
Acknowledgments
Books by L.M. Montgomery


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Book cover of The Blythes are Quoted.

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Created November 2, 2009. Last updated May 1, 2025.
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The Road to Yesterday

The Road to Yesterday by L.M. Montgomery was published in 1974. L.M. Montgomery had originally penned this book under the title The Blythes are Quoted, but the book was not published during her lifetime. After L.M. Montgomery's death, her manuscript was discovered by her son, Dr. Stuart MacDonald. The original manuscript for The Blythes are Quoted was divided into two parts taking place before and after World War I. Each part was composed of short stories interspersed with narratives of evenings in Anne and Gilbert Blythe's household with the Blythe family listening to Anne's poems.

In preparing The Road to Yesterday for publication, the narrative sections were removed along with all but one of the poems. The sequence of the short stories was reorganized. All of the stories included in The Road to Yesterday mention members of the Blythe family.

The Road to Yesterday includes the poem "Canadian Twilight" and 14 short stories, which are listed below:

"Canadian Twilight" (poem)
"An Afternoon with Mr. Jenkins"
"Retribution"
"The Twins Pretend"
"Fancy's Fool"
"A Dream Come True"
"Penelope Struts her Theories"
"The Reconciliation"
"The Cheated Child"
"Fool's Errand"
"The Pot and the Kettle"
"Here Comes the Bride"
"Brothers Beware"
"The Road to Yesterday"
"A Commonplace Woman"

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Created July 25, 2002. Last updated April 26, 2024.
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The Watchman and Other Poems

L.M. Montgomery published a volume of poetry titled The Watchman and Other Poems in 1916 by McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart. The book is named for the introductory poem, entitled “The Watchman.” This poem is followed by three thematic groups of poems: Songs of Sea, Songs of the Hills and Woods, and Miscellaneous.

All of the poems included in The Watchman and Other Poems had been previously published in magazines according to John Robert Sorfleet [1]. In her acknowledgements, L.M. Montgomery thanked the following publishers and magazines for granting permission to republish her poetry: The Youth's Companion, Forward, East and West, MacLean's Magazine, The Sunday School Times, Zion's Herald, The Outlook, Munsey's Magazine, The New Idea Woman's Magazine, Smart Set, The Ladies' World, The Canadian Magazine, St. Nicholas, The Congregationalist and Christian World, Everybody's Magazine, The Christian Endeavor World, The American Messenger, The Delineator, and Smith's Magazine.

L.M. Montgomery dedicated The Watchman and Other Poems to the soldiers who fought in WWI:

"To the memory of the gallant
Canadian soldiers who have laid
down their lives for their
country and their empire."


Image credit:
Scanned image of a 1916 volume of The Watchman and Other Poems from the University of Texas at Austin library by World of Anne Shirley

Reference:
[1] Sorfleet, John. R. "L. M. Montgomery: Canadian Authoress." in L. M. Montgomery: An Assessment. Ed. John Robert Sorfleet. Guelph: Canadian Children's Press, 1976. pages 42–49.

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Created February 17, 2002. Last updated September 11, 2024.
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The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery selected and introduced by John Ferns and Kevin McCabe was published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside in 1987.

While researching L.M. Montgomery's short fiction, Rea Wilmshurst of the University of Toronto discovered nearly 500 poems by L.M. Montgomery in magazines, newspapers, and manuscripts. Wilmshurst provided copies of these poems to John Ferns and Kevin McCabe for this project.

From this treasure trove, John Ferns and Kevin McCabe selected 86 poems for inclusion in this volume and categorized them by theme. In his introduction, Kevin McCabe provides biographical information about L.M. Montgomery and writes about her interest in writing verse throughout her life. Montgomery appreciated and aimed to convey beauty in her writing. She often focused on the same subjects in her poetry as in her prose: "the world of nature, human and family relationships, and stages of life." McCabe writes that these poems were selected "to display both what is best and what is typical in her work."

A paperback edition of this book was released in 1999.


Here is the description of the book from Fitzhenry & Whiteside:

The poems in this collection by L.M Montgomery were written to reach the readers she thought of as "kindred spirits" - those thousands of people who then, as now, would be as deeply moved as she was by beauty in nature and in spirit. She felt herself drenched with beauty. It was an emotion that evolves heart-deep recognition in readers who will find an echo of their own yearnings and hungers for emotional outlet.

Maud Montgomery was well aware that greatness as a poet was beyond her reach, but her verses were capable of putting into words what ordinary people felt and often could not explain. They express the sense of awe and delight arising from the simple human experiences of all that is lovely in the world. "I've written one real poem out of my heart," she confided to a friend in a week when she had sent off several verses she knew to be pot-boilers. But even these held a small kernel of thought, of appreciation, of gratitude for the gift of natural beauty. The poems in this collection will reach as deeply into the heart of today's readers as they did in those who first read them half a century ago.

Critics are now finding new insights and much genuine ability in Montgomery's poetry, but the poems remain poems for people. She wrote for people who hunger for a way to give voice to their deepest thoughts and emotions. She wrote as an artist paints, in vivid scenes with vivid colours. Her verses are clearly defined gem-like vignettes depicting familiar scenes beloved by all the friends of the earth. She writes of clouds and sky, the clash and thunder of waves on a seashore, the scents of garden and woodland, the kinship of humanity with whatever gods there be.

The qualities of simplicity and earnestness are not to be spurned. While ordinary people can respond to these eternal truths, Montgomery's poems will continue to be read and treasured.

The book includes the following content and poems:

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: Poems of Nature

The Seasons and the Rural Round

The Mayflower's Message
Apple Blossoms
In Lilac Time
In Haying Time
Out O' Doors
An Autumn Shower
When Autumn Comes
The Last Bluebird
The Lullaby
November Dusk
The First Snowfall

The World of Nature

Buttercups
Echo
The Pond Pasture
Drought
After Drought
Rain In The Country
The Wood Pool
The Tree Lovers
In Untrod Woods
The Wild Places

Times of Day

Sunrise Along Shore
A Perfect Day
Requiem
In Twilight Fields
Twilight In Abegweit
Night In The Pastures
Night
Midnight In Camp

Sea and Shore

On The Bay
On The Gulf Shore
When The Tide Goes Out
Before Storm
The Sandshore In September

Part II: Poems of Humanity

Down Home

Down Home
Home From Town
If I Were Home
Interlude
Last Night In Dreams
Southernwood
The Apple-Picking Time
Coiling Up The Hay

Familiar Places and Things

The Gable Window
Grandmother's Garden
In An Old Town Garden
The Light In Mother's Eyes
An Old Face
The Garden In Winter

Courtship and Romance

At The Dance
Comparisons
If Love Should Come
In Lovers' Lane

Poems of Death and Loss

The Bride Dreams
My Legacy
The Parting Soul
With Tears They Buried You Today

Religious Verse

I Asked Of God
A Thanksgiving
We Have Seen His Star

Ethical Verse

The Choice
Could We But Know
I Wish You
The Land Of Some Day
The Only Way
The Revelation
A Smile
Success
The Test
The Two Guests
The Words I Did Not Say
Which Has More Patience — Man Or Woman?

Poems of Childhood and Youth

All Aboard For Dreamland
The Grumble Family
In Twilight Land
The Quest Of Lazy-Lad
Up In The Poplars
What Children Know
The New Year's Book

Early Poems and Narratives

Farewell
On Cape Le Force
June!

Dramatic Verse

At The Long Sault
The Prisoner
The Watchman

Literature and Poetry

I Feel (Vers Libre)
The Poet's Thought


Image credit:
Book cover of The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery.

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