Poetry Performed Episode 007 - Thanksgiving Turkey by George Parsons Lathrop

Episode 007 - Thanksgiving Turkey by George Parsons Lathrop
Every year, millions of families in America, gather around the table to enjoy a Thanksgiving Turkey. It’s a joyous gathering, and George Parsons Lathrop captures that scene in this weeks poem “Thanksgiving Turkey”.

Thanksgiving Turkey by George Parsons Lathrop

Valleys lay in sunny vapor,  

  And a radiance mild was shed

From each tree that like a taper

  At a feast stood. Then we said,

  “Our feast, too, shall soon be spread,

      Of good Thanksgiving turkey.”

And already still November

  Drapes her snowy table here.

Fetch a log, then; coax the ember;

  Fill your hearts with old-time cheer;

  Heaven be thanked for one more year,

      And our Thanksgiving turkey!

Welcome, brothers—all our party

  Gathered in the homestead old!

Shake the snow off and with hearty

  Hand-shakes drive away the cold;

  Else your plate you’ll hardly hold

      Of good Thanksgiving turkey.

When the skies are sad and murky,

  ‘Tis a cheerful thing to meet

Round this homely roast of turkey—

  Pilgrims, pausing just to greet,

  Then, with earnest grace, to eat

      A new Thanksgiving turkey.

And the merry feast is freighted

  With its meanings true and deep.

Those we’ve loved and those we’ve hated,

  All, to-day, the rite will keep,

  All, to-day, their dishes heap

      With plump Thanksgiving turkey.

But how many hearts must tingle

  Now with mournful memories!

In the festal wine shall mingle

  Unseen tears, perhaps from eyes

  That look beyond the board where lies

      Our plain Thanksgiving turkey.

See around us, drawing nearer,

  Those faint yearning shapes of air—

Friends than whom earth holds none dearer

  No—alas! they are not there:

  Have they, then, forgot to share

      Our good Thanksgiving turkey?

Some have gone away and tarried

  Strangely long by some strange wave;

Some have turned to foes; we carried

  Some unto the pine-girt grave:

  They’ll come no more so joyous-brave

      To take Thanksgiving turkey.

Nay, repine not. Let our laughter

  Leap like firelight up again.

Soon we touch the wide Hereafter,

  Snow-field yet untrod of men:

  Shall we meet once more—and when?—

      To eat Thanksgiving turkey.

That was Thanksgiving Turkey by George Parsons Lathrop. George Parsons Lathrop was educated in New York City and Dresdon, Germany - deciding on a literary career and eventually marrying the second daughter of Nathanial Hawthorne.

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