Gilbert Keith Chesterton converted to Catholicism when he was in middle age, and espoused his faith with passion and picturesque language. This poem presents the story of Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey from the point of view of a creature whose entire existence is validated by one transcendent moment.

THE DONKEY

G. K. Chesterton

(1874–1936)

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

  Of 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.