A different perspective

The collage on my Home page foregrounds the ox and the ass. As does this ancient verse from the Vespers of Christmas:
O magnum mysterium, 
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
iacentem in praesepio!
(Oh great mystery,|
and wonderful ssacrament
that animals should see the newborn Lord
lying in a manger!)

And one of my favourite Christmas poems has the animals at its heart as well:

THE OXEN by Thomas Hardy
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,

“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.