Details

Title

The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Author

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Rossetti, William Michael

Place of Publication

New York

Publisher

Ward, Lock & Bowden

Collection

Scans provided by and used with permission of Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library. From the L.M. Montgomery Collection.

Note

This is Montgomery's own copy of Longfellow's poems, inscribed "L.M. Montgomery Feb. 22nd 1896." She purchased this volume, at age 21, with prize money she won from a newspaper writing contest. The "Halifax Evening Mail" offered a prize of $5 for the best letter in response to the question "Which as the more patience under the ordinary cares and trials of life--man or woman?" In response, Montgomery first wrote a short allegory, but when a friend of a friend suggested it wouldn't win, she decided to write a humorous verse instead. The poem argues that while men have "some" patience, it is women who have most "all-round patiences." She signed the verse "Belinda Bluegrass." A week later she noted that she "went uptown [in Halifax] to invest my 'Mail' prize money today. I wanted to get something I could keep always and not get tired of, so I got Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, and Byron. They are nicely bound and I've always longed to have them of my own" (see "The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery, The P.E.I. Years," Volume 1, pp. 311-314). Much like her copy of the works of Shakespeare, Montgomery has, over time, pasted or tipped in various clippings and images throughout the book. Inside the cover is a photo of Longfellow himself, but later in the book Montgomery has added photos of the "Wayside Inn" and other sites along with illustrations of various scenes. Many of these images were likely from serialized or magazine-published versions of the poems. References to Longfellow abound in Montgomery's journals, letters, and fiction. "Anne of Green Gables" references his "Maidenhood" (see page 482 above; the first bracketed stanza inspired the title of chapter 31) and "The Reaper and the Flowers." After that, most of her other novels, particularly those in the "Anne" series, contain a reference to a Longfellow poem included in this volume.

Genre

poetry