Walter Blythe facts for kids

Walter Cuthbert Blythe is a made-up character from Lucy Maud Montgomery's famous Anne of Green Gables book series. He is a main character in three books: Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla of Ingleside. Walter also appears briefly in the last book, The Blythes Are Quoted, where you can read some of his poems.

Walter Blythe's Life Story

His Early Life and Family

Walter Cuthbert Blythe was born in 1893. He was the second son of Gilbert and Anne Blythe. Their home was called "Ingleside" in Glen St. Mary, P.E.I., Canada.

Walter was named after his mother's father, Walter Shirley. His middle name honored Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had adopted his mother, Anne. Walter had six brothers and sisters: Joyce (who died as a baby), James Matthew (called "Jem"), Anne (called "Nan"), Diana (called "Di"), Shirley, and Bertha Marilla (called "Rilla").

A Young Poet's Dream

Even when he was a child, Walter loved poetry. He dreamed of becoming a famous poet one day. He was a lot like his mother, Anne, who also loved to write.

Walter was more sensitive than some of his friends. But his schoolmates respected him for being smart and kind. He even won a fight against a bully who insulted his mother!

The Vision of the Piper

Walter and his siblings often played in a special place called Rainbow Valley. It was near their home, Ingleside. There, Walter had a strange vision of World War I. He imagined a "Piper" playing music that would lead children away.

He described this vision in the book Rainbow Valley:

"Some day," said Walter dreamily, looking afar into the sky, "the Pied Piper will come over the hill up there and down Rainbow Valley, piping merrily and sweetly. And I will follow him — follow him down to the shore — down to the sea — away from you all. I don't think I'll want to go — Jem will want to go — it will be such an adventure — but I won't. Only I'll HAVE to — the music will call and call and call me until I MUST follow."

Sadly, Walter's vision came true. He later fought and died in a terrible war.

Education and Illness

Like his brothers and sisters, Walter went to Queen's College in Charlottetown. This was like a high school education. Later, he got very sick with typhoid. This illness made him weak.

After he got better, he worked as a school teacher for two years. He taught in a village called Lowbridge, P.E.I. In 1914, he planned to go to Redmond College to get a degree.

Joining the War Effort

When war started in August 1914, Walter's older brother Jem quickly joined the Canadian army. Walter was old enough to join too, but he didn't right away. He was still weak from his illness.

He went to Redmond College for a year. While there, he felt more and more pressure to join the army. Someone even sent him a white feather, which was a sign of being a coward.

In the summer of 1915, Walter felt fully recovered. He decided to answer the "Piper's call" and joined the army. Even though he went to college, he joined as a regular soldier, like his brother Jem. He was a private.

Bravery and a Special Award

After training in Canada, Walter visited his family one last time in July 1915. Then, he was sent to France to fight in the trenches.

In the spring of 1916, Walter showed great courage. He carried a wounded soldier out of No Man's Land to safety. For this brave act, he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal. This was the second-highest award for Canadian soldiers at that time.

The Famous Poem "The Piper"

Around the same time, while in the trenches, Walter wrote a poem that made him famous. It was called "The Piper." The poem was inspired by his earlier vision of World War I.

Walter wrote to his younger sister Rilla about it. He said, "I didn't feel as if I were writing it – something seemed to use me as an instrument."

Walter sent his poem to a magazine called London Spectator. It quickly became very popular:

"The poem was a short, poignant little thing. In a month it had carried Walter's name to every corner of the globe. Everywhere it was copied -- in metropolitan dailies and little village weeklies, in profound reviews and "agony columns," in Red Cross appeals and Government recruiting propaganda. Mothers and sisters wept over it, young lads thrilled to it, the whole great heart of humanity caught it up as an epitome of all the pain and hope and pity and purpose of the mighty conflict, crystallized in three brief immortal verses. A Canadian lad in the Flanders trenches had written the one great poem of the war. "The Piper," by Pte. Walter Blythe, was a classic from its first printing."

Walter's Death in Battle

Only a few months after his poem was published, Walter died. This happened at the Battle of Courcelette in September 1916.

The night before he died, he wrote to his sister Rilla again. He said he had another vision of The Piper. He felt he would have to follow him the next day. His vision was true. Walter went into battle the next morning and was killed instantly by a bullet.

About "The Piper" Poem

Real-Life Inspiration

The story of Walter's poem "The Piper" is very similar to a real-life poem. That poem is "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian doctor John McCrae. Walter's poem is meant to be like "In Flanders Fields" in its message and style.

L.M. Montgomery's Own "The Piper"

L.M. Montgomery, the author, eventually wrote her own poem called "The Piper." It was the last poem she ever finished. She sent it to a Canadian magazine in April 1942, just before she passed away.

She explained that people had been asking for Walter's poem for years. But the poem didn't exist when Rilla of Ingleside was first published in 1921. So, Montgomery wrote her version many years later, about World War II.

Here is the poem she wrote: "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?"

This poem is similar to what was described in Rilla of Ingleside. However, Montgomery's version has two stanzas, not three. It also doesn't mention "keeping faith," which was said to be a main part of Walter's poem.

The Project Gutenberg ebook of Rainbow Valley