Happy Thanksgiving, from Tweetspeak Poetry (and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

I went looking for a Thanksgiving Day poem, specifically one by Henry Wadswoth Longfellow (1807-1882). As much as I’ve read Longfellow over the past five years, I thought I remembered one. I found one that wasn’t about the day but about giving thanks in general.  And I found one about the harvest, which we’ve featured here at Tweetspeak Poetrybefore for Thanksgiving Day. 

As it turns out, Longfellow never wrote a poem for the day. He was alive at the time President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a National Day of Observance in October of 1863, after the strategic Union victories in the Civil Wat at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Like so much else that happened during the Civil War, the holiday was federalized. Previously, it had been left largely to the individual states.

 

But if there was a poet widely loved during that period and much of the 19^th century, it was Longfellow. He helped create national myths like Paul Revere’s ride and the story of Miles Standish; he introduced America to the story of the expulsion of the Acadians from Canada; and he depicted a native American as something other than a “noble savage.” He was America’s poet, and that was the reason I wrote his poetry into my historical novel Brookhaven.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Gratitude Is Not Just One Day – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

2025: Ten Reasons I’m Thankful This Thanksgiving – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

What to be thankful for – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

 

America’s First Thanksgiving Almost Didn’t Happen – Doug Spurling at Spurling Silver.

 

A President’s Thanksgiving Call to Grace and Gratitude – The Coolidge Review.

 

Why Did FDR Change the Date of Thanksgiving? – Tim Ott at History.

 

Why We Celebrate Thanksgiving – Dancing Priest (first posted in 2022).