Poems to Read on Thanksgiving Day

The story of the first Thanksgiving is a familiar one to all Americans. After a year filled with suffering and death, in the fall of 1621, the pilgrims at Plymouth had a feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest. This feast is surrounded by legends of the local Native Americans joining in the celebration and groaning tables of turkey, corn and some form of cranberry dish. These foods are the bedrock of the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It was not an official holiday until President Abraham Lincoln declared it so in 1863, although it was unofficially celebrated before that time by many Americans. Thanksgiving is a time for families gathered together to reflect on all the good things of their lives and an appropriate moment to read eloquent poems to mark the holiday and its meaning. The New-England Boys Song About Thanksgiving Day (1844) by Lydia Maria Child This poem, more commonly known as Over the River and Through the Wood, depicts a typical holiday journey through New England snows in the 19th century. In 1897 it was made into the song that is more familiar than the poem to Americans. It very simply tells the story of a sleigh ride through the snow, the dapple-gray horse pulling the sleigh, the howling of the wind and the snow all around, and at last arriving at grandmothers house, where the air is filled with the smell of pumpkin pie. It is the maker of the images of a typical Thanksgiving. The most famous words are the first stanza:​ Over the river, and through the wood,To grandfathers house we go;The horse knows the way,To carry the sleigh,Through the white and drifted snow. The Pumpkin (1850) by John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier uses grandiose language in The Pumpkin to describe, in the end, his nostalgia for Thanksgivings of old and bounteous love for pumpkin pie, the enduring symbol of those holidays. The poem begins with strong imagery of pumpkins growing in a field and ends as an emotional ode to his now elderly mother, enhanced by similes. And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset skyGolden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie! No. 814 by Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson lived her life almost entirely isolated from the rest of the world, rarely leaving her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, or receiving visitors, except for her family. Her poems were not known to the public in her lifetime. The first volume of her work was published in 1890, four years after her death. So its impossible to know when a particular poem was written. This poem about Thanksgiving, in characteristic Dickinson style, is obtuse in its meaning, but it implies that this holiday is as much about memories of previous ones as about the day at hand: One day is there of the seriesTermed Thanksgiving DayCelebrated part at tablePart in memory— Fire Dreams (1918) by Carl Sandburg Fire Dreams was published in Carl Sandburgs volume of poetry, Cornhuskers, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919. He is known for his Walt Whitman-like style and use of free verse. Sandburg writes here in the language of the people, directly and with relatively little embellishment, except for a limited use of metaphor, giving this poem a modern feel. He reminds the reader of the first Thanksgiving, conjures up the season and gives his thanks to God. Heres the first stanza: I remember here by the fire,In the flickering reds and saffrons,They came in a ramshackle tub,Pilgrims in tall hats,Pilgrims of iron jaws,Drifting by weeks on beaten seas,And the random chapters sayThey were glad and sang to God. Thanksgiving Time (1921) by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes, famous as a seminal and hugely important influence on the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, wrote poetry, plays, novels and short stories that shed a light on the black experience in America. This ode to Thanksgiving invokes traditional images of the time of year and the food that is always part of the story. The language is simple, and this would be a good poem to read at a Thanksgiving with children gathered round the table. Heres the first stanza: When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,Its Thanksgiving Time!

American Rhetoric Obama And Martin Luther King Jr.

African American Rhetoric: Barack Obama Martin Luther King Jr. Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. each deal with the issues of race and the African American struggle in their respective works. Both leaders use a combination of many rhetorical techniques in their arguments to make them more poignant and convincing. The two men make extremely strong and effective arguments that often rely on pathetic appeals to connect to their audience s values. However, Obama focuses more on an ethical approach by including stories about his childhood and family history to build up his credibility, while King Jr. uses more logical statements to walk the reader through each part of his argument, step by step. Barack Obama gave his speech at the†¦show more content†¦He takes two personal identities: African and American, and he truly combines them into African American, embracing his African roots while showing that he is as American as any white American. In the opening paragraph, Obama says: My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a sm all village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant. In these statements, Obama quickly accepts his African roots, as he describes a situation that is almost completely foreign to the Americans in his audience. He describes his father s life briefly, a life that most of his audience would not understand. With these short statements, he establishes that he is an individual and that his history is different from most of the audience s. However, he immediately uses this difference to connect with the audience as he says: But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place; America which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. In this quotation, Obama mentions multiple

An Analysis Of Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus

Texts and their adaptations contribute to the understanding of values upheld in their specific historical periods, presenting to modern responders the development of ideas. As such, readers today have the opportunity to respond to these works, which provide an insight into life during certain periods of time. For instance, Ovid’s narrative poem, ‘Metamorphosis’ 8 CE, depicts the dangers for a man to deviate from the natural order. Whereas, Pieter Bruegel’s converted art piece, ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’ c. 1560, emphasises the sustenance of work. W.H. Auden’s poem, ‘Musà ©e des Beaux Arts’, 1938 has presented a paradigm to his era, demonstrating the ignorance one has for disasters that do not directly affect oneself. Additionally,†¦show more content†¦Today’s readers are therefore positioned to respond to Ovid’s perception on the world in his time, as they see that the world has adaptively ch anged, where humanity has accepted the upsurge of their own capabilities. Also, there has been recognised the limitations established by society for the male population during this era. The Roman world he was exposed to saw a time when there was discouragement against actions that challenged society’s conventions. As such, with the reference to the poetic narrative, Ovid explains, with a synonym, that Daedalus, â€Å"lifting upwards on his wings, flew ahead, anxious for his companion, like a bird, leading her fledglings out of a nest above, into the empty air†. With this, Daedalus is yet again seen to attempt to overcome nature but is convinced he isn’t doing so at a perilous extreme. Although Icarus was shown to pay the price of his recklessness, as for when he became too reckless, he consequently was vanquished and came plummeting down from the skies. In an example that proves to fellow others of the dangers of such overconfidence, Daedalus is then told to lay Icarus’ body to rest and â€Å"the island was named Icaria after h is buried child†. 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Healing Hospital Management

Question: Consider how the paradigm of a healing hospital might influence your philosophy of caregiving and write an essay of 500-750 words that addresses the following: Describe the components of a healing hospital and their relationship to spirituality. What are the challenges of creating a healing environment in light of the barriers and complexities of the hospital environment? Include biblical aspects that support the concept of a healing hospital. Answer: The components of a healing hospital include culture of fundamental and loving care, therapeutic physical environment and technology integration. Therapeutic physical environment means a peaceful environment so that the patients can sleep that helps them and their body cells to regenerate faster and accelerates healing process. To create a peaceful environment, physical alterations within the hospital is required to take place if they are not in place. For example: maintaining silence while cleaning work is in progress within patient wards and implementing policy regarding no over head paging except there us an urgent circumstance. Peaceful environment creates stress free surroundings for patients, care personnel, family members and also for the other care staff. Essential loving care takes place when workers unite together and assign to constructing a care focused environment on individual patient. For instance: patient can turns on call light and a maintenance employee can walk down towards the lobby, immediately observes light without any hesitation and visits the patient room to check the patients needs (Zahner, 2006). This is considered as a thinking which shows individual patient is a patient for everyone. This approach includes the patients healing by meeting their physical requirements and also emotional and spiritual needs. The technology integration includes providing patient with more security and privacy. The issues associated with patient privacy and security is very stressful for patients. Therefore, technology integration is considered as beneficial to offer patients with few in-ward entertainments like giving them educational material regarding their particular complications or any other activities. Additionally, technologically advanced instruments are advantageous for the patients as this can accelerate the technique while obtaining analysis results, like: pathology report or radiology report that sequentially helps to diminish the anxiety of the patients. The challenges may include these following points: Implementation of these components of healing hospital is challenging and should be overcome. Initially, a challenge is present regarding nurses, physicians and other staff involved with the idea of healing hospital. It is very important factor that all the health care professionals accept all the patients as their patients without specifying the patients as his or hers (co-worker). Furthermore while recruiting nursing professionals it is significant to search for individual who are keen to reach beyond for their peers and care consumers in addition to having proper necessary skills for the profile for which the job seekers are applying (Pickard, 2006). Another factor is creating challenge about healing physical environment that presents an economical obstruction for most of the hospitals. Care providers allow patient healing emotionally, spiritually and physically that offers them a security sense and sense of peace. A biblical verse is present which fits with healing hospital physi ology. This illustrates about healing and health of people to allow them to get benefit from abundant security and peace within their lives (Kingjamesbibleonline.org, 2015). The concept of healing hospital supports the factors of this biblical verse. Care professionals facilitate patient healing emotionally, spiritually and physically that offers them an intellect of peace and security. The philosophy of healing hospitals is focused on holistic care aspects and supports care for patients and their family members. All the hospitals need to think about implementing philosophy of healing hospital as this offers compassionate care and quality care to the care consumers along with augmented professional satisfaction. References Kingjamesbibleonline.org,. (2015).JEREMIAH 33:6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and trut.... Retrieved 18 February 2015, from https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Jeremiah-33-6/ Pickard, S. (2006). Healing the Wound of Ministry: A New Paradigm.Ecclesiology,3(1), 81-101. doi:10.1177/1744136606067686 Zahner, A. (2006). Paradigm Shift: Integrative Healing.Psyccritiques,51(45). doi:10.1037/a0004136