ellauri014.html on line 1679: Emily of New Moon. universally recognized as the book that most encoded her personality, contains one poem, or a part of a poem, also found in Montgomery’s memoir of the craft, originally published as a serial in a Canadian magazine in 1917 and later published as The Alpine Path in 1974. In Emily of New Moon the poem is sent to Emily by Jarback (Pönttöselkä) Priest as a selection from “The Fringed Gentian,” and includes this stanza:
ellauri014.html on line 1728: But granted these are different poems, we are left with the curious problem of where Montgomery found the Alpine Path poem. Surprisingly, after reading a dozen or so academic articles on Emily of New Moon and Montgomery’s vocation as an author–as well as a couple of good biographies–scholars have not pinned down the reference. After an extensive internet search, it seems to me that blogger Faith Elizabeth Hough may have begun to work it out. She includes the longer version of the poem here:
ellauri014.html on line 1770: Like Bryant’s poem, this verse is about autumnal flowers. With some searching I found this poem in the 1884 New Year’s edition of Godey’s Lady’s Book. “Tam! The Story of a Woman” by Ella Rodman Church and August De Bubna includes this poem. In the story the verses are found in a copy of Bryant’s poetry–hence Montgomery’s connection to the poem–but in the (relatively boring) story they are actually written on a slip of paper that was found in the Bryant book–and written by a woman who tentatively hopes to make a career as a poet in a male’s publishing world. Intriguingly, Montgomery seems to have forgotten the original context of the verse, but herself emulated the desire of “Miss Powell” in the story.
ellauri014.html on line 1772: It seems to me that Montgomery selects out the best bit of the poem, but again you see my bias. I am that “blossom,” I hope–but if all four verses are included it becomes rather silly to press the metaphor. Still, I think Montgomery was on the right track with her idea of “The Alpine Path.” It is a peculiar provenance that brings us this poem, but it has been an interesting journey. Once I found the names of Ella Rodman Church and August De Bubna I found that others have followed my path of curiosity. The Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown has some of L.M. Montgomery’s scrapbooks, including her copy of the poem. But the search has been interesting, nonetheless.
4