Poems (Sharpless)/Thanksgiving
For works with similar titles, see Thanksgiving.
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 expectancyHer long snow-shrouded sleep; the sunset glowHath 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 partAnd 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 daysAlike have ripened life's full harvest sheaves;—And as descend the cool and darkling eves Thy fittest song is of adoring praise.