Poems (Sharpless)/Thanksgiving

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For works with similar titles, see Thanksgiving.
4648388Poems — ThanksgivingFrances M. Sharpless

THANKSGIVING
The harvests are all in; the fields lie bare;
While vines and orchards yield their ripened wealth;
And as though Winter fain would come by stealth,
A frosty chillness crisps the bracing air.

The land awaits in calm expectancy
Her long snow-shrouded sleep; the sunset glow
Hath fallen from the radiant West, below
Tingling with glory every bush and tree.

The white mist rises from the hidden brook,
Like earth's soft incense poured forth undefiled;
A thousand pungent odors, rich and wild,
Spring up like startled birds from every nook.

'Tis earth's thanksgiving hymn! oh soul take part
And add thine anthem full of love and faith;
Not thine her narrow bounds of birth and death,
For Love Immortal opens to thy heart.

Sorrow and pain, anguished and joyous days
Alike have ripened life's full harvest sheaves;—
And as descend the cool and darkling eves
Thy fittest song is of adoring praise.