Nic and Ruth Carlyle commissioned these song settings of poems by L.M. Montgomery as a tribute to Montgomery, marking the 150th anniversary of her birth. We were delighted to have the songs included by the L.M. Montgomery Institute of Prince Edward Island, Canada, into the #Maud150 celebrations.

L.M. Montgomery, or Lucy Maud Montgomery in full, was a Canadian writer. She is best known for the Anne of Green Gables series of novels, but also wrote short stories and published over 500 poems. The poems set to music here were all selected by Montgomery to be included in her 1916 poetry collection The Watchman and Other Poems. The poems are all quite lyrical and much of the language reflects her love of 19th century British poetry. The poems also present whimsical and colourful images of the natural world that will be familiar to readers of Montgomery’s novels.

The song settings are all for voice and piano and recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano). The first two song settings in the set are by David Barton, ‘The Old Home Calls’ and ‘Come, Rest Awhile’. These are followed by settings by Tim Knight of ‘In An Old Town Garden’ and ‘A Request’.

The title poem for the collection was closely associated with Montgomery in her lifetime. In announcing the death of the author in 1942, the Saturday Review quoted the closing verse of ‘The Old Home Calls’ and described the poem as evoking ‘the spirit of her work’.

Montgomery was proud of her Scottish heritage and this is reflected instinctively by the composers in the lilt of the settings.

The Old Home Calls: song settings of poems by L.M. Montgomery

Readers of the novels of L.M. Montgomery will recognise the importance of home in Montgomery’s novels. In Anne of Avonlea, Anne Shirley comments on the old Boulter family property: ‘”I think that an old, deserted house is such a sad sight,” said Anne dreamily. “It always seems to be thinking about its past and mourning for its old-time joys.”’
In the poem ‘The Old Home Calls’, Montgomery gives the yearning voice to the house itself. She chose to include the poem in her 1916 collection of poetry The Watchman and Other Poems, which is dedicated to Canadian soldiers lost or wounded in the First World War. This adds a poignancy to the close of the poem.
Nic and Ruth Carlyle commissioned David Barton to compose this song setting of ‘The Old Home Calls’. It was recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano) at the Summerfield Recording Studio. The paintings are by Nic Carlyle and the album cover design is by Clementine Barton.


The Old Home Calls
By L.M. Montgomery

Come back to me, little dancing feet that roam the wide world o’er,
I long for the lilt of your flying steps in my silent rooms once more;
Come back to me, little voices gay with laughter and with song,
Come back, little hearts beating high with hopes, I have missed and mourned you long.

My roses bloom in my garden walks all sweet and wet with the dew,
My lights shine down on the long hill road the waning twilights through,
The swallows flutter about my eaves as in the years of old,
And close about me their steadfast arms the lisping pine trees fold.

But I am weary for you at morn and eve, O, children of my love,
Come back to me from your pilgrim ways, from the seas and plains ye rove,
Come over the meadows and up the lane to my door set open wide,
And sit ye down where the red light shines from my welcoming fireside.

I keep for you all your childhood dreams, your gladness and delights,
The joy of days in the sun and rain, the sleeps of carefree nights,
All the sweet faiths ye have lost and sought again shall be your own,
Darlings, come to my empty heart – I am old and still and alone!

The Old Home Calls - L.M. Montgomery and David Barton, 2024

The Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery is best known for her novels, particularly the Anne of Green Gables series. Her poems are less well known. The language and style of ‘Come, Rest Awhile’ reflects her love of British authors, particularly Shakespeare, Browning and Scott.

There is also a universal message within the poem of the need to slow down and rest in the moment.

This setting by David Barton was commissioned by Nic and Ruth Carlyle as part of a tribute to Montgomery on the 150th anniversary of her birth. It was recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano) at the Summerfield Recording Studio. The paintings are by Nic Carlyle and the album cover design is by Clementine Barton.

Come, rest awhile
By L.M. Montgomery

Come, rest awhile and let us idly stray
In glimmering valleys, cool and far away.

Come from the greedy mart, the troubled street,
And listen to the music, faint and sweet,

That echoes ever to a listening ear,
Unheard by those who will not pause to hear – 

The wayward chimes of memory’s pensive bells,
Wind-blown o’er misty hills and curtained dells.

One step aside and dewy buds unclose
The sweetness of the violet and the rose;

Song and romance still linger in the green,
Emblossomed ways by you so seldom seen,

And near at hand, would you but see them, lie
All lovely things beloved in days gone by.

You have forgotten what it is to smile
In your too busy life – come, rest awhile.

Come Rest Awhile - L.M. Montgomery and David Barton, 2024

Gardens are important spaces in the novels of L.M. Montgomery. When she is away from home at college, Emily Byrd Starr finds solace in a garden and Hester Gray’s garden is the space in which Anne Shirley accepts a (second) proposal of marriage from Gilbert Blythe. Gardens in towns are particular places of solace, away from the noise and bustle of the street.

Montgomery’s poem ‘In An Old Town Garden’ reflects this focus on gardens as spaces. The poem covers a range of moods, contrasting the ‘shaded, troubled streets’ with ‘this garden blossom-blest’.

This setting by Tim Knight was commissioned by Ruth and Nic Carlyle as part of a tribute to Montgomery on the 150th anniversary of her birth. It was recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano) at the Summerfield Recording Studio. The paintings are by Nic Carlyle and the album cover design is by Clementine Barton.


In An Old Town Garden
by L.M. Montgomery

Shut from the clamor of the street
By an old wall with lichen grown,
It holds apart from jar and fret
A peace and beauty all its own.

The freshness of the springtime rains
And dews of morning linger here;
It holds the glow of summer noons
And ripest twilights of the year.

Above its bloom the evening stars
Look down at closing of the day,
And in its sweet and shady walks
Winds spent with roaming love to stray.

Upgathering to themselves the breath
Of wide-blown roses white and red,
The spice of musk and lavender
Along its winding alleys shed.

Outside are shaded, troubled streets
And souls that quest for gold and gain,
Lips that have long forgot to smile
And hearts that burn and ache with pain.

But here is all the sweet of dreams,
The grace of prayer, the boon of rest,
The spirit of old songs and loves
Dwells in this garden blossom-blest.

How would I linger for a space,
And walk herein with memory;
The world will pass me as it may
And hope will minister to me.

In An Old Town Garden - L.M. Montgomery and Tim Knight, 2024

The Canadian novelist L.M. Montgomery lived for much of her life on Prince Edward Island. Her novels, particularly the Anne of Green Gables series, are closely associated with the island – and Maud herself felt most at home in the coastal village of Cavendish, the location she drew upon for the creation of Avonlea in her books.

Montgomery’s poem ‘A Request’ reflects her desire to be buried close to the sea; a request that was met. Death in the poem is a time of rest, not a time to be feared. It is a joyful poem, with powerful word painting and touches of Montgomery’s vivacity and humour. 

Montgomery was proud of her Scottish heritage. The instinctive lilt in her poem has been captured in this setting of ‘A Request’ by Tim Knight. The song setting was commissioned by Ruth and Nic Carlyle as part of a tribute to Montgomery on the 150th anniversary of her birth. It was recorded by Ruth Carlyle (voice) and David Barton (piano) at the Summerfield Recording Studio. The paintings are by Nic Carlyle and the album cover design is by Clementine Barton.

A Request 
By L.M. Montgomery

When I am dead
I would that ye make my bed
On that low-lying, windy waste by the sea,
Where the silvery grasses rustle and lisp;
There, where the crisp
Foam-flakes shall fly over me,
And murmurs creep
From the ancient heart of the deep,
Lulling me ever, I shall most sweetly sleep.
While the eerie sea-folk croon
On the long dim shore by the light of a waning moon.

I shall not hear
Clamor of young life anear,
Voices of gladness to stir an unrest;
Only the wandering mists of the sea
Shall companion me;
Only the wind in its quest
Shall come where I lie,
Or the rain from the brooding sky
With furtive footstep shall pass me by,
And never a dream of the earth
Shall break on my slumber with lure of an out-lived mirth.

A Request - L.M. Montgomery and Tim Knight, 2024

Ruth is based in Lichfield, UK, and sings mostly classical and traditional folk music. She also writes lyrics (as Eleanor Ruth Carlyle) and collaborates on new music with David Barton http://www.davidbartonmusic.co.uk/.

She  released her first EP with David Barton in November 2020: ‘Annabel Lee Replies’.

The songs on Ruth’s SoundCloud site are illustrated by her husband Nic Carlyle https://www.twitter.com/carlyle_nic

Ruth was a awarded a Distinction for London College of Music Examinations Grade 8 Classical Singing (100%) in July 2018 and the DipLCM (upper level) in July 2019.