The Donkey’s Finest Hour

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, author of “The Donkey,” was a religious man who wanted to influence his readers and promote social change through his writings and poetry. According to Dan Boyd, British Poets, 1880 – 1914, “Chesterton in his poetry, as in his other writings, saw himself as a spokesman for the poor and exploited whom he regarded as the mystical symbols of God’s presence in the world.” The American Chesterton Society concurs, adding:
Chesterton's appreciation of the common man predates his college years. His teenage notebooks are full of a reverence for ordinary people, expressed as a corollary to his reverence for the most ordinary of objects and things. Chesterton's respect for the common man was basically a respect for free will. He said that the actions of a beggar are as momentous as the actions of a prime minister, because the beggar's actions are no less free and have an eternal significance surpassing all merely temporal enterprises, even those of prime mi...