Kerr's Ass

Kerr's Ass - fact Summary

Rural Memory Informs Narrative

This short poem draws on Patrick Kavanagh’s rural upbringing, recounting the return of a borrowed donkey and the careful handling of its harness and tack. Domestic, tactile details anchor a scene in Mucker while a sudden reference to Ealing Broadway juxtaposes local memory with urban dislocation. The closing lines show imagination transforming mundane objects into a living rural world, invoking morning, the bog, and a quasi-religious sense of renewal.

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We borrowed the loan of Kerr's ass To go to Dundalk with butter, Brought him home the evening before the market And exile that night in Mucker. We heeled up the cart before the door, We took the harness inside -- The straw-stuffed straddle, the broken breeching With bits of bull-wire tied; The winkers that had no choke-band, The collar and the reins . . . In Ealing Broadway, London Town I name their several names Until a world comes to life -- Morning, the silent bog, And the God of imagination waking In a Mucker fog.