A Thanksgiving Poem

We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
And conquers if we let it.

There’s not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past’s wide measure.

But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o’er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1896


——>UP NEXT An Autumn evening on the prairie.

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Suzanne

Cattle, corn, wheat, beans, mud, snow, ice, and drought. Plenty of fresh air and quiet. Our life is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous, but never boring.

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7 Responses

  1. Marilyn says:

    What a beautiful Thanksgiving poem. Thank you. Wishing you and Harland and your families a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday.

    Marilyn in Missouri

  2. Teresa says:

    Hope your Thanksgiving has been filled with blessings.

  3. Hope your Thanksgiving Day was grand!

  4. Vivian says:

    Suzanne, thank you for sharing that lovely Thanksgiving poem. We all really do have a lot to be thankful for when we think about it.

    Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
    Vivian

  5. wonderful poem! I really enjoyed it. Hope you and Harland and your family and friends all had a Happy Thanksgiving and here’s to safe, happy and peaceful holidays ahead!

  6. This is the Monday evening past Thanksgiving and as I visited your site the Thanksgiving poem brought me to tears. The words were very moving. Thanks for sharing! 🙂 joyce

    • Suzanne says:

      Hi Joyce,
      If you google the poem author’s name, you can find more of her work. I had never heard of her before, but I just fell in love with her Thanksgiving poem.
      Thank you for stopping by.

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