stephens.35723
  Junior Member

This poem was not written by John Greenleaf Whittier, as it is typically credited, but rather by his brother, Mathew Franklin Whittier. It first appeared in the Oct. 1, 1846 edition of the Boston "Chronotype" edited by abolitionist Elizur Wright, under the title, "Song of the Pumpkin [Written on receiving the gift of a Pumpkin Pie]." It was signed "A Yankee." For more information on Mathew Franklin Whittier, see my paper, "A (Relatively) Brief Biographical Sketch of 19th-Century Author, Activitist and Mystic Mathew Franklin Whittier" on my Academia.edu page, https://www.academia.edu/50140100/A_Relatively_Brief_Biographical_Sketch_of_19th_Century_Author_Activist_and_Mystic_Mathew_Franklin_Whittier