donkey
by Chesterton · Cluster: Martyrdom · Martyr Saint · Cross
Abstract
Lyric in which the despised, grotesque donkey keeps its secret: it too had ‘one far fierce hour’ when palms were strewn before it on Palm Sunday — the lowly exalted through Christ.
Testo / Text
Connections
Topoi: World Upside Down
Archetypes: Christ Figure, Scapegoat, Outsider Motifs: Animals, Moon, Blood Themes & Concepts: Humility, Grace and Redemption, Grotesque, Secrecy and Concealment, Suffering and Pain Forms & Genres: Lyric Historical References: Bible, Christianity Characters: Christ
Testo integrale / Full text
The Donkey
G.K.Chesterton
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.