Poems (Larcom)/A Thanksgiving
For works with similar titles, see Thanksgiving.
DEVOTIONAL.
A THANKSGIVING.
FOR the wealth of pathless forests, Whereon no axe may fall; For the winds that haunt the branches; The young bird's timid call; For the red leaves dropped like rubies Upon the dark green sod; For the waving of the forests, I thank thee, O my God!
For the sound of waters gushing In bubbling beads of light; For the fleets of snow-white lilies Firm-anchored out of sight; For the reeds among the eddies; The crystal on the clod; For the flowing of the rivers, I thank Thee, O my God!
For the rosebud's break of beauty Along the toiler's way; For the violet's eye that opens To bless the new-born day; For the bare twigs that in summer Bloom like the prophet's rod; For the blossoming of flowers, I thank Thee, O my God!
For the lifting up of mountains, In brightness and in dread; For the peaks where snow and sunshine Alone have dared to tread; For the dark of silent gorges, Whence mighty cedars nod; For the majesty of mountains, I thank Thee, O my God!
For the splendor of the sunsets, Vast mirrored on the sea; For the gold-fringed clouds, that curtain Heaven's inner mystery; For the molten bars of twilight, Where thought leans, glad, yet awed; For the glory of the sunsets, I thank Thee, O my God!
For the earth, and all its beauty; The sky and all its light; For the dim and soothing shadows, That rest the dazzled sight; For unfading fields and prairies, Where sense in vain has trod; For the world's exhaustless beauty, I thank Thee, O my God!
For an eye of inward seeing; A soul to know and love; For these common aspirations, That our high heirship prove; For the hearts that bless each other Beneath Thy smile, Thy rod; For the amaranth saved from Eden, I thank Thee, O my God!
For the hidden scroll, o'erwritten With one dear Name adored; For the Heavenly in the human; The Spirit in the Word; For the tokens of Thy presence Within, above, abroad; For Thine own great gift of Being, I thank Thee, O my God!