One of the overlooked aspects of Thanksgiving is that the holiday has produced some truly remarkable writing. The tradition of reading poems to the family during large gatherings has sadly disappeared from much of modern life, yet these poems, sayings, and stories still exist. They are there to be plucked from the shelf and taught to a new generation, providing sustenance unlike any other.

Liberty Nation offers this selection of poems and sayings for your literary edification. Enjoy!

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

— John F. Kennedy

Farewell and Thanksgiving

By Mark van Doren

Whatever I have left unsaid
When I am dead
O’muse forgive me.
You were always there,
like light, like air.
Those great good things
of which the least bird sings,
So why not I?
Yet thank you even then,
Sweet muse, Amen.

“Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.”
– Alexander Pope

Thanksgiving Comes But Once a Year

By Thornton W. Burgess

Thanksgiving comes but once a year,
But when it comes it brings good cheer.
For in my storehouse on this day
Are piles of good things hid away.
Each day I’ve worked from early morn
To gather acorns, nuts, and corn,
Till now I’ve plenty and to spare
Without a worry or a care.
So light of heart the whole day long,
I’ll sing a glad Thanksgiving song.

 

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
– Melody Beattie

One Day is there of the Series

By Emily Dickinson

One Day is there of the Series
Termed Thanksgiving Day.
Celebrated part at Table
Part in Memory.
Neither Patriarch nor Pussy
I dissect the Play
Seems it to my Hooded thinking
Reflex Holiday.

Had there been no sharp Subtraction
From the early Sum —
Not an Acre or a Caption
Where was once a Room —
Not a Mention, whose small Pebble
Wrinkled any Sea,

Unto Such, were such Assembly
‘Twere Thanksgiving Day.

“It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.”
– Alistair Cooke

And one more just for fun.

“Thanksgiving is an emotional time. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they see only once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.”
– Johnny Carson

With the words of Johnny Carson, we wish you the very happiest of Thanksgivings.