Make Fun Of Life!
  • Learning
    • Alphabet
    • Numbers
    • Foods
    • Time
    • Activities
    • Elocution
    • English Grammar
    • Colors
  • Holidays
    • New Year's Day
    • Groundhog Day
    • Valentine's Day
    • Easter
    • Arbor Day
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving Day
    • Christmas
    • Birthdays
  • Inspiration
    • Everyday Inspiration
    • Christian Faith
    • Christian Quotations
    • Personal Development
    • Moral Conduct
    • Disability
    • Physical Fitness
    • Work
  • Library
    • Fairy Tales
    • Adventure
    • Horror
    • Quotationary
    • Quotation Collections
    • Picture Quotations
    • Stories With Morals
    • Nursery Rhymes
    • Essays
    • Correspondence
  • Life
    • Childhood
    • Friendship
    • Adulthood
    • Marriage
    • Parenting
    • Family
    • Generations
    • In Memory
  • Serious
    • Serious Topics
    • Serious Poems
    • Child Abuse
    • Website Index
    • Website Information
  • Silly
    • Nonsense
    • Limericks
    • Fake News
    • Beaumont's Bits
    • Picture Jokes
  • Society
    • Geography
    • History
    • Biography
    • Americana
  • World
    • Animals
    • Plants
    • Nature
    • Seasons
    • Weather

Potatoes

7/28/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
Potatoes
 
An old lady sat in her old arm-chair
With wrinkled visage and disheveled hair
And hunger worn features:
For days and for weeks her only fare,
As she sat there in her old armchair,
Had been potatoes.
 
But now they were gone; of bad or good
Not one was left for the old lady’s food
Of the potatoes.
And she sighed and she said,
“What shall I do?
Where shall I send, and to whom shall I go
For more potatoes?”
 
And the thought of the deacon over the way,
The deacon so ready to worship and pray,
Whose cellar was full of potatoes;
And she said,
“I will send for the deacon to come;
He’ll not mind much to give me some of such a store
of potatoes.”
 
And the deacon came over as fast as he could,
Thinking to do the old lady some good,
But never thought once of potatoes:
He asked her at once what was her chief want,
And she, simple soul, expecting a grant,
immediately answered, “Potatoes.”
 
But the deacon’s religion wasn’t that way:
He was more accustomed to preach and to pray,
Then to give of his hoarded potatoes:
So not hearing, of course, what the old lady said,
He rose to pray with uncovered head,
But she thought only of potatoes.
 
He prayed for patience, wisdom, and grace,
But when he prayed “Lord give her peace,”
She audibly sighed
“Give potatoes.”
And at the end of each prayer which he said,
He heard, or thought he heard in its stead
The same request for potatoes.
 
The deacon was troubled; knew not what to do;
’Twas very embarrassing to have her act so
About “those carnal potatoes.”
So ending his prayer, he started for home;
But, as the door closed behind him he heard a deep groan,
“O, give to the hungry, potatoes!”
 
And that groan followed him all the way home;
In the midst of the night it haunted his room-
“O, give to the hungry, potatoes!”
He could bear it no longer; arose and dressed,
From his well-filled cellar taking in haste
A bag of his best potatoes.
 
Again he went to the widow’s lone hut:
Her sleepless eyes were not yet shut;
But there she sat in that old armchair,
With the same wan features, the same sad air.
And entering in, he poured on the floor
A bushel or more from his goodly store
Of choicest potatoes.
 
The widow’s heart leaped for joy;
Her face was haggard and wan no more.
“Now,” said the deacon, “shall we pray?”
“Yes” said the widow, “now you may.”
And he knelt down on the sanded floor,
Where he had poured his goodly store,
And such a prayer the deacon prayed
As never before his lips essayed;
 
No longer embarrassed, but free and full,
He poured out the voice of a liberal soul,
And the widow responded aloud, “Amen!”
And said no more of potatoes.
 
And would you, who hear this simple tale,
Pray for the poor, and praying “prevail,”
Then preface your prayers with alms and good deeds:
Search out the poor, their wants and their needs;
Prayer for peace, and grace, and spiritual food,
For wisdom and guidance - for all these are good,
But don’t forget the potatoes.
 
-J. T. Pettee
 
John Tyler Pettee was born on 5 September 1822 in Sharon, Massachusetts, United States of America. In 1843, he graduated from Wesleyan University. On 26 October 1843, he married Mariette Roxanne Clark. Mr. Pettee became a minister with the title Reverend, an amateur astronomer, a Meriden School superintendent, a teacher, a principal, a poet, a judge of probate, and a town selectman. John Tyler Pettee passed on at 84 years of age on 7 February 1907 in Meriden, Connecticut, United States of America. To visit his online memorial click on the link https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17001404.
google.com, pub-5004046848211730, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
2 Comments
millie daly
3/11/2018 01:38:07 pm

I am 79 years old. My father taught me this poem when I was about 10 years old. We lived in Jamaica, West Indies. I used to recite this poem at church functions all the time. What a blessing to encounter it again after all these years!

Reply
Hilsy brathwaite
3/12/2018 08:52:03 am

My sister recite the poem more than 60 years ago at our church harvest in Barbados. It was a big hit and I am thrilled to read it again. Our mother taught it to to recite as part of the Sunday School program. I am going to teach it to someone in our church for next year's harvest program!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Further fantastically fascinating frivolity and factuality await you on the Make Fun Of Life! Website if you will courageously click on any of the colorful words below.

    Activities
    ​​Adulthood
    ​
    Adventure

    Alphabet
    ​Americana
    Animals
    Arbor Day

    Beaumont’s Bits
    Biography
    Birthdays
    Child Abuse
    Childhood
    Christian Faith

    Christian Quotations
    Christmas
    Colors
    Correspondence
    Disability
    Easter

    Elocution
    English Grammar
    Essays

    Everyday Inspiration
    ​
    Fairy Tales
    Fake News
    Family
    Foods
    Friendship
    Generations

    Geography
    ​Groundhog Day
    Halloween
    History
    Holidays

    Horror
    In Memory
    Inspiration
    Learning
    Library
    Life
    Limericks
    Marriage
    Moral Conduct
    Nature
    New Year’s Day
    Nonsense
    Numbers
    Nursery Rhymes
    Parenting

    Personal Development
    ​
    Physical Fitness
    Picture Jokes
    ​
    Picture Quotations
    Plants
    Quotation Collections
    ​Quotationary
    Seasons
    Serious
    Serious Poems
    Serious Topics
    Silly
    Society
    Stories with Morals
    Thanksgiving Day

    Time
    Valentine’s Day
    Weather

    Website Index
    Website Information
    Work
    World
    Picture
    ​Do you need a joke, quotation, paragraph, or poem about a particular subject or topic? Go to the search box found at the top right side of this page and type it in. We have a surprising variety of material and we add new stuff regularly, so you might find what you are seeking.

    Picture
    ​Make Fun Of Life! can be right there with you, at home or wherever you go, on a laptop, cell phone, tablet, or any other internet connected device. Bookmark us and visit whenever you can. We regularly add fascinating new articles just for you!

    Picture
    When you reach the bottom of this page on Make Fun Of Life! click on <<Previous or Forward>> to see the next page.

    Picture
    You are now on the Make Fun Of Life! Website . . . where humor, inspiration, and learning are back together again - as they were always meant to be.

    Picture
    Picture
    ​Welcome to the Make Fun Of Life! Website. We are here to bring a little happiness to the world. Would you like to be among the first people to see new articles when they appear on the website? Click on the social media buttons on the left side of your screen and then follow us. We wish you the very best imaginable day, and thank you for visiting!

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly