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Thanksgiving.

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

Let us be thankful - not only because             Since last our universal thanks were told         We have grown greater in the world's applause,             And fortune's newer smiles surpass the old -         But thankful for all things that come as alms             From out the open hand of Providence: -         The winter clouds and storms - -the summer calms -             The sleepless dread - the drowse of indolence.         Let us be thankful - thankful for the prayers             Whose gracious answers were long, long delayed,         That they might fall upon us unawares,             And bless us, as in greater need, we prayed.         Let us be thankful for the loyal hand             That love held out in welcome to our own,         When love and only love could understand             The need of touches we had never known.         Let us be thankful for the longing eyes             That gave their secret to us as they wept,         Yet in return found, with a sweet surprise,             Love's touch upon their lids, and, smiling, slept.         And let us, too, be thankful that the tears             Of sorrow have not all been drained away,         That through them still, for all the coming years,             We may look on the dead face of To-day.

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"Let us be thankful - not only because..."

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Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"Let us be thankful - not only because..." by James Whitcomb Riley

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James Whitcomb Riley

About James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet." His dialect poems—including "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin"—celebrate rural Indiana life and childhood nostalgia.

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