XXVII + 

The Ass + 

I woke and rose and slipt away + 

To the heathery hills in the morning grey. + 

In a field where the dew lay cold and deep + 

I met an ass, new-roused from sleep. + 

I stroked his nose and I tickled his ears, + 

And spoke soft words to quiet his fears. + 

His eyes stared into the eyes of me + 

And he kissed my hands of his courtesy. + 

“O big, brown brother out of the waste, + 

How do thistles for breakfast taste? + 

“And do you rejoice in the dawn divine + 

With a heart that is glad no less than mine? + 

“For, brother, the depth of your gentle eyes + 

Is strange and mystic as the skies: + 

“What are the thoughts that grope behind, + 

Down in the mist of a donkey mind? + 

“Can it be true, as the wise men tell, + 

That you are a mask of God as well, + 

“And, as in us, so in you no less + 

Speaks the eternal Loveliness, + 

“And words of the lips that all things know + 

Among the thoughts of a donkey go? + 

“However it be, O four-foot brother, + 

Fair to-day is the earth, our mother. + 

“God send you peace and delight thereof, + 

And all green meat of the waste you love, + 

“And guard you well from violent men + 

Who’d put you back in the shafts again.” + 

But the ass had far too wise a head + 

To answer one of the things I said, + 

So he twitched his fair ears up and down + 

And turned to nuzzle his shoulder brown. + 