Poems (Larcom)/A Thanksgiving

by Lucy Larcom

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!