A Weight with Needles on the pounds — Thanksgiving Turkey

Species be for name hints the answer at the end. Species has the definition of "the visible form of each of the elements of bread and wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist _{(OED 2)}." The name thanksgiving somehow fits to that.

A Weight with Needles on the pounds－¹
To push, and pierce, besides－
That if the Flesh resist the Heft－
The puncture－coolly tries－

That not a pore be overlooked ⁵
Of all this Compound Frame－
As manifold for Anguish－
As Species－be－for name－

(F.294/J.264)

[1, 2, 4] Needles, pierce, puncture:: to sew a turkey.
[1, 3] pounds, Flesh:: weight of the turkey flesh.
[5] not, overlooked:: to secure the stuffing. pore:: a hint on poultry, probably.
[6] Compound Frame:: stuffed turkey, a dish of framed mixtures.
[7] Anguish:: pain and suffering for a year's harvest.
[8] Species:: a visible or sensible presentation (to God). name:: Thanksgiving turkey, the name gives thanks to God.

The editor of the Boston Morning Post informs his readers, that no paper will be issued on Friday, as he had received a glorious thanksgiving turkey, which he meant to eat in peace!——The Literary Gazette (1837)

Roast Turkey. Wash the outside and inside very clean. Take bread crumbs, grated or chopped, about enough to fill the turkey, chop a bit of salt pork, the size of a good egg, and mix it in, with butter, the size of an egg, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs to your taste. Then beat up an egg and work in. Fill the crop and the body, sew them up, and tie the legs and wings, and spit them.——Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt-book (1856)