Chapter 38 - (VERSO)
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Anne went to the little Avonlea graveyard the next evening to put fresh flowers on Matthew’s grave and water the Scotch rose-bush. She lingered there until dusk, liking the peace (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)and(end superscript) (begin superscript)calm(end superscript) of the little place, with its poplars (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)R19(end superscript) and its whispering grasses growing at will among the graves. When she finally left it and walked down the long hill to the Lake of Shining Waters it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dream-like afterlight—”a haunt of ancient peace.” (begin subscript)^(end subscript)(begin superscript)S19(end superscript) Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting,
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LMM Note R19
whose rustle was like low friendly speech
LMM Note S19
There was a freshness in the air as of a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover[.]
TEXT ANNOTATION
"a haunt of ancient peace": An innocently appreciative line about landscape, from Tennyson’s (1832) "Palace of Art," if read out of context. In the context of Tennyson’s allegory (about Art and Soul), the line is more complex. The Soul at last gives up her mistaken notion that She can live separate from others if She hopes to achieve great Art or be fully alive. Anne’s reconciliation with Gilbert is much more, the allusion suggests, than "just" romance. For discussion of this and the final Browning quotation, see Epperly, The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass, pp. 34–36.
TEXT ANNOTATION
"twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees": Reminiscent of the final passage in the Prince Edward Island essay Montgomery wrote for The Spirit of Canada: Dominion and Provinces, a Souvenir of Welcome to H.M. King George VI and H.M. Queen Elizabeth (1939), prepared in advance of the Royal tour of Canada (see the cover of this booklet).
"Peace! You never know what peace is until you walk on the shores or in the fields of Prince Edward Island on a summer twilight when the dew is falling and the old old stars are peeping out and the sea keeps its nightly tryst with the little land it loves. You find your soul then . . . you realize that youth is not a vanished thing but something that dwells forever in the heart. And you look around on the dimming landscape of haunted hill and murmuring ocean, of homestead lights and old fields tilled by dead and gone generations who loved them . . . and you say, 'I have come home!'"
This passage became the signature quotation of Island historian and early Montgomery scholar, the Rev. Dr. F.W.P. Bolger, and was even set to music and sung in his honour on public occasions on P.E.I. Father Bolger introduces himself in the Bend in the Road CD-ROM.
Description: a man in a grey coat introduces himself to the camera.
[Father Bolger] Well, my name is Francis W Bolger. Reverend Francis or Dr. Francis, Father Francis. I used to teach at the University [of Prince Edward Island] for many years. I retired in 1994 regretfully; I didn't want to but I thought it was time to go -- have younger people take over, and I taught there for some 35 years, and I've been in about retirement since. I don't believe in the word; there isn't such a thing as retirement really because I'm busier than I was teaching.
PLAY VIDEO