Thanks to Dr. John Roark for sharing this poem. I can't verify authorship. A nearly identical poem is attributed to James Patrick Erdman.
Touch Hands
As years go on and heads turn gray
how fast the guests do go.
Touch hands, touch hands with those who stay -
young hands to old, strong hands to weak -
around the Thanksgiving board touch hands.
The False forget, the foe forgive, for every guest will go
and every fire burn low, and cabin empty stand.
Forgive, forget - for who may say Thanksgiving Day
will ever come again for friend or foe alike.
Touch hands!
2 comments:
Not Erdman. Dr Wm Harrison Murray
https://bowlsoakbay.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Touch-Hands-1.pdf
TOUCH HANDS
Ah friends, dear friends,
As years go on and heads get gray, How fast the guests do go!
Touch hands, touch hands With those that stay.
Strong hands to weak,
Old hands to young, around the Christmas board touch hands.
The false forget, the foe forgive, For every guest will go And every fire burn low And cabin empty stand.
Forget, forgive,
For who may say that Christmas day May ever come to host or guest again.
Touch hands!
William Henry Harrison Murray
1840-1904
William Henry Harrison Murray (1840-1904), also known as Adirondack Murray, was a clergyman and author of an influential series of articles and books which popularized the Adirondacks; he became known as the father of the Outdoor Movement.
Born in Guilford, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale in 1862 and served as a minister in Greenwich, Connecticut and Meriden, Connecticut from 1869 through 1873. He also delivered Sunday evening lectures about the Adirondacks in a Boston music-hall that proved highly popular, and he published a series of articles based on the lectures in a Meriden newspaper. In 1869, they were published as a book, Adventures in the Wilderness: Camp-Life in the Adirondacks.
The literary tone of the book made it extremely successful; it went through eight printings in its first year. Murray promoted New York's north woods as health-giving and spirit-enhancing, claiming that the rustic nobility typical of Adirondack woodsmen came from their intimacy with wilderness. A subsequent printing, subtitled Tourist's Edition, included maps of the region and train schedules from various Eastern cities to the Adirondacks.
Although the book was to become one of the most influential books in the conservation movement of the 19th century, paradoxically, within five years it led to the building of over 200 "Great Camps" in the Adirondacks; "Murray's Fools" poured into the wilderness each weekend, packing specially scheduled railroad trains.
TOUCH HANDS
The above poem appears is the epilog to Murray's story John Norton's Vagabond, the second of two stories that appear in his book Christmas in the Adirondacks (1898). In the book the words are written as prose, rather than verse. The illustration below is on the last page of the story. Text of the book can be found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28098/28098-h/28098-h.htm
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