Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Savior where I looked for hay;
So may my beast like folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.
Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baaing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!
The Nativity
Summary
"The Nativity" by C.S. Lewis is a quiet, devotional poem set in the stable at Bethlehem, where the speaker places himself among the ox, the ass, and the sheep — not as a worshipper above them, but as their equal in weakness. Each animal becomes a mirror: the ox's slowness, the donkey's stubbornness, the sheep's tendency to stray all reflect the speaker's own faults. The poem's central longing is beautifully humble — to learn virtue not from angels, but from beasts gathered around the manger.
