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A Song of Thanksgiving

The pilgrims long ago faced strong
__Attacks on their beliefs,
And found a land they could command
__Where faith would find relief.

They journeyed long but still faced strong
__Attacks by Winter frost,
And lived to see quite happily
__In Spring not all was lost.

And then in Summer like the hum
__The bees make while they speed,
So pilgrims busied with their business
__And with urgent need,

Constructing houses, planning harvests,
__Learning to survive—
To find a way that they could stay,
__Not well, but just alive.

And when frost came again the same
__This time they were prepared
With gathered stock and hearths of rock
__And friends with whom they shared—

The Indians of darker skins
__Brought them five deer and corn
And tried each dish of fresh caught fish
__That from the sea was torn.

So too we come from summer’s hum
__of work and sweaty troubles;
So too we’ve faced a life displaced
__And dread that sometimes doubles;

So too we feel that all that’s real
__Must have some higher goal;
So too we know when we’re laid low
__We rise up as a soul;

So too we thank for this great banquet
__Our divine Creator,
Who creates and shapes our fates,
__And is our final savior.

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Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York and is President of the Society of Classical Poets.

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16 Responses

  2. Cynthia Erlandson

    Very lovely, and appropriately thankful to our forefathers as well as our creator. And wonderful internal rhyme!

    Reply
  4. James Sale

    Well done Evan – good to remind ourselves of the founding stories and the sacrifice and heroism that went into making a new country. It helps stiffen all our resolves not to let this precious heritage be squandered in utopian pie-in-the-sky aka demonic ‘equality’ et al!

    Reply
  5. Sally Cook

    Dear Evan –
    I tried these words ont to the tune of “Oh, God, Our Help Ih Ages Past” (oe of my favorite hymns) and they worked beautifully.
    Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours..

    Reply
    • Jack DesBois

      Agreed – “Oh God Our Help In Ages Past” fits these words wonderfully. Perhaps even better than the old words, with the delightful internal rhyme. I especially like “So too we thank for this great banq(uet).”

      I did get tripped up on the headless line “Who creates and shapes our fates” … perhaps “Him who creates and shapes our fates” (but that draws unnecessary attention to the subject/object issue)…

      Reply
      • Evan Mantyk

        Thank you, Sally and Jack!

        Jack, the metrical effect I was going for was that the unstressed beat on the end of the previous line would act as the unstressed iambic beat on the next line.

        cre A tor / WHO cre ATES

        Now, whether this was successful or not will depend on each reader. Thank you for the feedback.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Those are perfectly acceptable and traditional variations in Evan’s last quatrain. It also comes up in quatrain 4, where “Learning to survive” is headless; and in quatrain 6, where “BROUGHT them five DEER and CORN” has a trochaic start.

  6. Jeff Eardley

    Evan, a most enjoyable piece on your special celebration. As others have said, it is a perfect lyric and I found myself singing it to the tune of, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.” Hope you have a good one.

    Reply
  7. Brian Yapko

    A very fine poem, Evan — it is almost a hymn! — which both respects and celebrates our true national history, puts our current dysfunctional world in proper perspective and gives humble, heartfelt thanks to our Creator. I especially love the image of how we “rise up like a soul.” This poem is so right on so many levels. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

    Reply
  8. Evan Mantyk

    Thank you all for your comments. I had intended to write a very short poem not more than a quatrain or two to read before our Thanksgiving feast, but this one just came out so easily and smoothly that it seemed like it was meant to be. It is as if I were transcribing it directly from the clouds of Heaven, which is not typical.

    Reply
  9. Martin Rizley

    I really enjoyed this poem, Evan. A good recounting, in poetic form, of the story of that first Thanksgiving feast on which our present celebration is based, and the reason for it. It is good to remember in these days of “cancel culture” what revisionists historians would like us to forget– that the motive behind that historic feast, was indeed religious, to give God thanks for His mercies, and it was also iconic of the diversity that would characterize the life of that nation that would emerge from the original colonies, since Englishmen and indigenous peoples sat down at the same table together to feast.

    Reply
  10. Margaret Coats

    Fine reminder of that first difficult year, and thus of how much there was to be thankful for. One student who had to read the history for an American literature survey course responded, “I don’t care what these people believed! I just want to be like them!” Evan, may your poem evoke similar feelings.

    Reply
  11. Roy E. Peterson

    Evan, another poem of distinction that should be read in our educational
    institutions around Thanksgiving! I particularly appreciate moving from the first Thanksgiving to the modern era with incisive words carve out the real meaning of Thanksgiving today that is relevant and important.

    Reply
  12. David Watt

    Evan, this is a very fluid and meaningful ballad. Your lines highlight what is truly important in our lives, and the sacrifices made for a higher purpose.
    Although we don’t have a Thanksgiving, we still should give thanks for what we have.

    Reply

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