Monday 10 February 2014

'The Donkey'

'The Donkey', an illustration by John Vernon Lord for GK Chesterton's poem 'The Donkey' 
in The Song that Sings the Bird, poems for young children chosen by Ruth Craft, 
Harper Collins, 1989.

The text:

The Donkey

By GK 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.

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