Poetry Performed Episode 006 - A Thanksgiving Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Episode 006 - A Thanksgiving Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Between Halloween and New Year’s is one of my favorite times of the year. We have many holidays in this period that cause us to take time to reflect on our blessings - for me, those two holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas. For others they take different forms - but this week, we’ll turn to Paul Laurence Dunbar and his “A Thanksgiving Poem” to start shifting our mindset towards this thankful time of year.
A Thanksgiving Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The sun hath shed its kindly light,
Our harvesting is gladly o’er
Our fields have felt no killing blight,
Our bins are filled with goodly store.
From pestilence, fire, flood, and sword
We have been spared by thy decree,
And now with humble hearts, O Lord,
We come to pay our thanks to thee.
We feel that had our merits been
The measure of thy gifts to us,
We erring children, born of sin,
Might not now be rejoicing thus.
No deed of our hath brought us grace;
When thou were nigh our sight was dull,
We hid in trembling from thy face,
But thou, O God, wert merciful.
Thy mighty hand o’er all the land
Hath still been open to bestow
Those blessings which our wants demand
From heaven, whence all blessings flow.
Thou hast, with ever watchful eye,
Looked down on us with holy care,
And from thy storehouse in the sky
Hast scattered plenty everywhere.
Then lift we up our songs of praise
To thee, O Father, good and kind;
To thee we consecrate our days;
Be thine the temple of each mind.
With incense sweet our thanks ascend;
Before thy works our powers pall;
Though we should strive years without end,
We could not thank thee for them all.
That was A Thanksgiving Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first influential Black poets in the United States. Born to freed slaves in Kentucky in 1872, he was educated in Ohio and began publishing poems before he graduated from high school. He gained international acclaim and his body of work primarily explored Black life in turn-of-the-century America.
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