Pumpkin Pie

Summary


Pumpkin Pie is a playful poem that follows one giant pumpkin from sunny garden to Thanksgiving table. Swelling with vanity after winning a prize ticket at the County Fair, the pumpkin soon meets a boy and his mother, who have very different plans for it. Peeled, stewed, spiced and baked, its grand pride gives way to comic humility. Short rhyming couplets and a wry, gently teasing tone make this a charming harvest-season read-aloud.

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Through sun and shower the pumpkin grew,
When the days were long and the skies were blue.

And it felt quite vain when its giant size
Was such that it carried away the prize

At the County Fair, when the people came,
And it wore a ticket and bore a name.

Alas for the pumpkin’s pride! One day
A boy and his mother took it away.

Pumpkin Pie: a boy and his mother admire a giant prize pumpkin with a ribbon at the County Fair.

It was pared and sliced and pounded and stewed,
And the way it was treated was hard and rude.

It was sprinkled with sugar and seasoned with spice,
The boy and his mother pronounced it nice.

It was served in a paste, it was baked and browned,
And at last on a pantry shelf was found.

And on Thursday John, Mary, and Mabel
Will see it on aunty’s laden table.

For the pumpkin grew ‘neath a summer sky
Just to turn at Thanksgiving into pie!


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Credits

Mary Mapes Dodge was a 19th-century American author and the celebrated editor of St. Nicholas Magazine, one of the most beloved children's periodicals of its day. Her verse here captures a classic New England Thanksgiving, with the aunt's laden table as the final destination.