University of Virginia Library

Thanksgiving Flowers

Bright flowers! November's frosts and cold have spared,
To greet us on this late Thanksgiving morn;
A tender love for you, as us, has cared;
The pansies still our garden plot adorn,
Chrysanthemums, that, with the waning year,
Round many homes in golden clusters bloom;
And e'en December's stormy month can cheer,
Stealing from many a clouded day its gloom.
While grateful for the harvest we would be,
Which with abundance fills our wide domain;
In these bright flowers new tokens, too, we see
Of the same Love, which gives the fruits and grain;

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And makes November's bare and cheerless bowers
Bright with the hues of Memory's fadeless flowers.
Poem No. 77; c. 6 December 1878