The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery is a collection of L.M. Montgomery’s poems selected by John Ferns and Kevin McCabe and introduced by Kevin McCabe. It was published as a jacketed hardcover by Fitzhenry and Whiteside in October 1987. A paperback edition followed in 1999.
From the Dust Jacket
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born at Clifton, P.E.I., on 30 November 1874. When she was not quite two years old her mother died, and the child was cared for at the Cavendish farm of her maternal grandparents, Alexander Macneill and his wife Lucy Woolner Macneill. Here Maud (her name in the family) grew up surrounded by the beauties of nature that became so important to her, but also subject to a fairly narrow and restricted life in this small community.
Although her fame today rests on her novels, the first of which (Anne of Green Gables) was published in 1908, Maud’s writing began with poems. In 1904 she earned $591.95, in 1906 more than $700 for poems and short stories sold to many North American publications: astounding totals for a freelance writer at that time, especially a woman.
The success of her first novel was a total surprise to Maud and launched her into the career of novelist for which she became famous world-wide, but her poetry was always to her a higher form of writing.
It was not until her grandmother died in March 1911 that Maud felt free to marry. In July that year she became the wife of the Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Ewan Macdonald an mother of two sons. With husband and sons she came to Toronto in 1935 and found herself busy with demands for more books and for speaking engagements. She was wracked by overwork, by family problems and by the shadow of World War II. Her last years were melancholy. She died on 24 April 1942. Her husband survived to December 1943 and was buried beside her in the little Cavendish cemetery.
Contents
Acknowledgements (1)
Introduction / Kevin McCabe (2–19)
Part I: Poems of Nature
The Seasons and the Rural Round
The Mayflower’s Message (23)
Apple Blossoms (24)
In Lilac Time (25–26)
In Haying Time (27–28)
Out O’ Doors (29)
An Autumn Shower (30)
When Autumn Comes (31)
The Last Bluebird (32)
The Lullaby (33–34)
November Dusk (35)
The First Snowfall (36)
The World of Nature
Buttercups (37)
Echo (38)
The Pond Pasture (39)
Drought (40)
After Drought (41)
Rain in the Country (42)
The Wood Pool (43)
The Tree Lovers (44–45)
In Untrod Woods (46)
The Wild Places (47)
Times of Day
Sunrise Along Shore (48–49)
A Perfect Day (50)
Requiem (51)
In Twilight Fields (52)
Twilight in Abegweit (53)
Night in the Pastures (54–55)
Night (56)
Midnight in Camp (57–58)
Sea and Shore
On the Bay (59–60)
On the Gulf Shore (61–62)
When the Tide Goes Out (63)
Before Storm (64)
The Sandshore in September (65)
Part II: Poems of Humanity
Down Home
Down Home (69)
Home from Town (70–71)
If I Were Home (72–73)
Interlude (74)
Last Night in Dreams (75–76)
Southernwood (77)
The Apple-Picking Time (78–79)
Coiling Up the Hay (80)
Familiar Places and Things
The Gable Window (81–82)
Grandmother’s Garden (83–84)
In an Old Town Garden (85)
The Light in Mother’s Eyes (86–87)
An Old Face (88)
The Garden in Winter (89)
Courtship and Romance
At the Dance (90–91)
Comparisons (92)
If Love Should Come (93)
In Lovers’ Lane (94)
Poems of Death and Loss
The Bride Dreams (95–97)
My Legacy (98)
The Parting Soul (99)
With Tears They Buried You Today (100–101)
Religious Verse
I Asked of God (102)
A Thanksgiving (103)
We Have Seen His Star (104)
Ethical Verse
The Choice (105)
Could We but Know (106)
I Wish You (107)
The Land of Some Day (108–9)
The Only Way (110)
The Revelation (111)
A Smile (112–13)
Success (114)
The Test (115)
The Two Guests (116–17)
The Words I Did Not Say (118–19)
Which Has More Patience—Man or Woman? (120–21)
Poems of Childhood and Youth
All Aboard for Dreamland (122)
The Grumble Family (123–24)
In Twilight Land (125)
The Quest of Lazy-Lad (126–27)
Up in the Poplars (128–29)
What Children Know (130)
The New Year’s Book (131)
Early Poems and Narratives
Farewell (132–34)
On Cape Le Force (135–39)
June! (140–41)
Dramatic Verse
At the Long Sault (142–45)
The Prisoner (146–47)
The Watchman (148–51)
Literature and Poetry
I Feel (Vers Libre) (152)
The Poet’s Thought (153)
Reviews
Reviews by Laura Groening, Eileen Manion, Michael O. Nowlan, and Muriel Whitaker.
Metadata
Editors: John Ferns and Kevin McCabe
Paratext: Introduction by Kevin McCabe
Country: Canada
Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside
Date: 1987
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim: 6” x 9”
ISBN: 0-889902-931-8