Good and Plenty

Feast your eyes on this Thanksgiving still life painted by Salvatore Lascari.

His fall vegetables remind us that, in spite of parades and football games, Thanksgiving originated as a harvest celebration.

Instead of turkey, an excerpt from an anonymous nineteenth-century poem rounds out our menu:

A Thanksgiving Hymn

"Have you cut the wheat in the blowing fields,
The barley, the oats, and rye,
The golden corn and the pearly rice?
For the winter days are nigh.…

"Have you gathered the berries from the vine
And the fruits from the orchard trees,
The dew and the scent from the roses and thyme
In the hive of the honey-bees?"…

Then lift up the head with a song!
And lift up the hands with a gift
To the ancient giver of all
The spirit of gratitude lift!"

Pictured: Salvatore Lascari, 1884 Italy–1967 USA, Thanksgiving, undated, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 34 x 28 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design.