Chapter 38 - (VERSO)

TEXT ANNOTATION

"God’s in his heaven, all's right with the world": From Robert Browning's (1841) verse drama Pippa Passes, a Drama. These are the last two lines of Pippa's song:
The year’s at the spring
And Day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God’s in his heaven –
All’s right with the world! (I. Morning.ll. 221-228)

In the published novel, Montgomery opened and closed with Browning. She began with the epigraph from "Evelyn Hope" (see annotation in Chapter 22); then ended with Pippa's famous song. The song captures the innocent happiness of young Pippa, a poor silk-factory worker, who chooses to spend her once-a-year 12-hour holiday by walking through the streets of Asolo, delighting in what she imagines to be the happiness of other people. Ironically, there is a plot afoot to kidnap her, and the people she imagines happy are deeply disturbed, even murderous. Unbeknownst to Pippa, her voice and trusting presence change people's lives for the better. As with many of Montgomery's quotations, we can read this one on several levels. Anne, like Pippa, is an orphan who has known hardship and neglect, and she chooses (though more consciously than Pippa) what Pippa chose: to see beauty in the world and to believe in people.

TEXT ANNOTATION

"whispered Anne softly": Montgomery turned the sheet of paper over to write this final quotation. She could have ended the story with the "bend in the road" image on the previous page, but instead she wants to leave Anne's voice as the last thing we hear in the story.