THE DONKEY

When I was in a school, I had this amazing teacher called Nalini Parthiban. Most people found her incredibly boring. She was. She lived in a world of her own where every molecule surrounding her was fascinated by literature. When she would start talking about a particular writer, a book or a poem that fascinated her ,her eyes would light up, a delighted smile would settle on her face and she would start gesturing rapidly. The very sight of such passion made me love her. Love the depth to which she loved literature. Admired her ability to dissect any obscure piece of writing, analyse and hunt every single hidden meaning within what seemed quite cut and dried. I remember this one instance which happened probably when I was in the IXth. I had read a poem by G.K Chesterton which I had found quite enchanting. The language, the rhyme, the sheer descriptiveness of the poem captivated me. When I went up to Nalini and showed her the poem , she directed her delighted smile at me and said "Yes, this is an extremely good poem by Chesterton. But do you know what it means?". I was flumoxed. I had never thought about what the poem meant. When she explained it to me, from being enchanted, I fell deeply in love with the poem. It was such a simple poem but had such a sweet meaning behind it. I'll post the poem now and leave anyone reading this to guess the meaning.

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.