Spanish Donkey

In Spain full oft the little donkey
Is misehievous as a monkey,
But Spanish peasant owned a prize,
A donkey was both strong and wise.

Peasant drove him each day to town,
And sold his milk both up and down;
And where his customers did dwell,
The peasant he did ring door bell.

But he was struck down by fever,
And he was a strong believer
That the donkey milk could sell,
And at each house would pull the bell.

It really did turn out that way,
House without bell for them he’d bray;
And allowed the Spanishers
To unload his panniers.

When the town’s Mayor did hear the news,
He said no one must beast abuse;
And each measure out milk honest,
And truly they all acted just.

So thus the donkey milk did sell
Until the peasant he got well,
And we are happy for to say,
Each for his milk did honest pay.

Where this text comes from

First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L24.

Cite this poem

James McIntyre (1828?–1906). “Spanish Donkey.” First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/james-mcintyre/spanish-donkey/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

More by James McIntyre