"The Piper"
by L. M. Montgomery
One day the Piper came down the Glen …
Sweet and long and low played he!
The children followed from door to door,
No matter how those who loved might implore
So wiling the song of his melody
As the song of a woodland rill.
Some day the Piper will come again
To pipe to the sons of the maple tree!
You and I will follow from door to door,
Many of us will come back no more …
What matter that if Freedom still
Be the crown of each native hill?
(Please note: this poem is not in the public domain, however I couldn't find it online in a format that I could simply share a link to, so I am reproducing it here out of my paperback copy of The Blythes are Quoted so we can study it. This is for educational purposes only; I will make no monetary gain from reproducing it in this classroom setting.)
Discussion Questions:
1. Is this a sad poem or a hopeful poem?
2. What imagery is Montgomery pulling into this poem to make it more powerful?
1. A little bit of both, I think. Probably a bit more sad, though. I just read the Anne series, and L.M. Mongomery LOVED her home. She was very patriotic. Even in this, she says, "to the home of the Maple tree", Canada has a Maple tree on her flag, so doubtless that was a specific choice of hers to make it clear the "native hills" were those of Canada, and the boys being called off to fight, and the girls going as nurses and such, were the children of Canada. But she also, I'm sure, had every mother and father who didn't want they're boys to go die in mind. So it is very sad, but she also knows WHY it's happening, since she talks about freedom, even at the cost of death, and in a way, though still undoubtedly melancholy, there is a little hope, that at least the death of some woman's only son, wasn't for nothing.
ReplyDelete*their* boys to go die in mind.
DeleteI think it has a good tone of resolution -- there is sadness, but it's a needful sadness. Not wasteful sadness. If that makes sense?
DeleteIt does!
Delete2. He's specifically using imagery that we immediately associate with children, like the piper. In the first verse, I think he's talking about wars past, maybe one specific Canadian war, or just all the wars in general, I don't know, but he's definitely using this verse to first really shake the reader into realizing, without even mentioning them outright, the atrocities of young men, or children, going off to die. He does this by saying "door to door". When men were going off to war, they'd be stationed at different places, always getting nearer and nearer the outright battlefield, so I think that's what door to door signifies. And then of course, this isn't exactly imagery, but the parent's pleading with their little children not to leave. And then the lines, "So wiling the song of his melody As the song of a woodland rill." A "woodland rill" is a little stream, so he's comparing the piper's "wiling" song of bravery and freedom and honor and duty and adventure etc. to young men, to that of the music of a bubbling stream to little children. Once again, we see the imagery directing us to think of the young men dying in the war from the perspective of looking at them as a mother's little babies.
ReplyDeleteIn the second verse, after he's imbedded into our minds how horrible and heartbreaking war is, he starts using himself and people who he apparently knows, as the children following the piper from door to door. And then he says "Many of us will come back no more", finally saying outright what we'd already been thinking, but he just let us think it so that when he actually comes out and says it, it's almost more sickening than, since it's been kind of stewing in our heads. But then all at once in the last two lines he takes a totally different perspective. For the entire poem up to this point, we've been sympathizing with mothers, with fathers, with sisters, with little brothers who aren't old enough to go and don't want to lose their big brothers, with girls who just got engaged watching their fiance leave, with girls who just had their first baby, watching their husband leave, with all the loved ones of the boys leaving, possibly never to return, and THEN he directs us to the sensations of the boys actually going off to the war. In the second to last line, he says "What matter that" about all the above, implying that he and all the other young men, are perfectly aware of the horrendous nature of what they're doing, but then it doesn't matter because of the actual reason for which they're doing what they're doing. Even if bravery, freedom, honor, duty and adventure play a part in leaving to fight, the central reason that overwhelms them all is to protect the freedom (which includes the safety and everyday comforts) of "each native hill" and all who inhabit those hills. So throughout the whole poem he's using imagery that portrays the boys going off as mere children, then in the last two lines, confirms them as men, because the duty of a man is to protect his family, and that's what they're doing, whether it's his actual wife and children, or his little sisters, or just his family in the broadest sense.
And I just realized I said "He" that whole time, thinking about Walter from Rilla of Ingleside instead of L. M. Montgomery! Woops! 😂
DeleteNo, saying 'he' is valid because it's clearly a male narrator. We talked earlier about most poems having a narrator's voice that may or may not be the voice of the poet -- and we know because of the book this is part of that its narrator is Walter, not LMM.
DeleteYou definitely got some good stuff out of this one. It's a hard one, with a lot of weight to it. I would say the one thing you didn't mention that feels kind of important to me is how he riffs off the Pied Piper story, a man enticing kids away from their homes against their parents' wishes. But not for a mean reason, in this poem, but a noble one.
1. I think it's a hopeful poem, because even though it's talking about people going to war, it also talks about how their sacrifice keeps their freedom, so even though people are going to die it isn't in vain.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. They aren't going off to die for selfish or bad reasons, they are doing something important. It's hopeful, but in a tragic sort of way.
Delete2. It puts me in mind of the Pied Piper, like war lures people away and some of them get killed, kind of like the Pied Piper luring rats away to get rid of them. Everyone wants to follow the music, like the children at the end of the story (and the rats). Also, 'freedom still be the crown of each native hill' shows how much of an effect freedom really has, that it's the land that's free as well as the people.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is definitely a strong tie to the Pied Piper story. But almost like a reverse Pied Piper story -- the sons and daughters are following him because he needs their help, not because he is getting a weird revenge on their miserly parents.
DeleteI like your point about freedom being for the land itself too, not only the people. Nice.