Whittier’s ‘The Pumpkin’
Allusion and Pumpkin Pie in Whittier's Poem
John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "The Pumpkin," is light-hearted, yet it uses a highly charged allusion to make the poem more than mere whimsy.
Consisting of five stanzas, the poem is written in couplets. Stanzas 1-4 have eight lines, while stanza 5 has ten lines. The speaker seems to alternately address his listeners and the pumpkin itself. The poem beautifully celebrates the autumn season, the Thanksgiving holiday, and the pumpkin.
First Stanza: “Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun”
In the first stanza of “The Pumpkin,” the speaker describes the pumpkin’s vine growing “in the lands of the sun.” The vines are so large and tangled that they remind the speaker of “Nineveh’s prophet” over whom a gourd grew to protect from the sun. This prophet allusion is to Jonah, who was sent by God to Nineveh to warn the people that if they did not correct their evil ways, their city would be destroyed.
As Jonah waited outside the city to see if it would be destroyed, a giant gourd grew over him: “With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold, / Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew, / While he waited to know that his warning was true.” (For the full story of Jonah, please see Jonah, chapters 1-4 in the King James Version of the Old Testament.)
Second Stanza: “On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden”
In the second stanza, the speaker dramatizes the pumpkin being cherished by a young Spanish girl “On the banks of the Xenil” and the Creole Indians in Cuba being merry upon finding the large fruit “shining through broad spheres of gold.”
Then the speaker brings the celebration to his own place and time: “On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth, / Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines, / And the sun of September melts down on his vines.”
Third Stanza: “Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West”
The speaker continues the celebration in New England and refers to “Thanksgiving Day.” The reader recognizes the American custom: relatives traveling, sometimes at great distances to unite with beloved family to celebrate the holiday of gratitude.
In this stanza, the speaker completes the journey of the pumpkin: from resting majestically on the tangled vines to becoming a “rich Pumpkin pie.”
Fourth Stanza: “Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling”
In the fourth stanza, the speaker looks back to his boyhood and dramatizes the fall season, “When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!” He remembers carving the pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern: “When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, / Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!”
He remembers how he and his friends sat on pumpkins laughing “round the corn heap, with hearts all in tune,” and he remembers hearing a tale that included a “fairy who travelled like steam, / In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!”
Fifth Stanza: “Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better”
The speaker then addresses his listeners to wish them a happy Thanksgiving holiday. He wishes them sweetness in life and that their hearts be filled with gratitude. In his own heart, he holds a prayer: “And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express, / Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less.” Ending on a serious yet whimsy note, he prays: “And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky / Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!”
Another Whittier article: Whittier’s “Barefoot Boy”: Boyhood in Summer
