A gray old donkey is asked to bray the world awake on a sleepy morning. Short and easy to act out with a good loud bray.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Donkey, donkey, old and gray,
Ope your mouth and gently bray;
Lift your ears and blow your horn,
To wake the world this sleepy morn.
About this rhyme
Traditional · Appears in The Real Mother Goose, 1916
A short morning rhyme, and no one knows who wrote it. The earliest printing anyone can point to is The Real Mother Goose in 1916, the American collection with Blanche Fisher Wright's pictures. There is not much story to it. You simply ask a grey old donkey to open its mouth, bray, and wake the world up for the day. The 'horn' is a friendly joke about how loud and un-tuneful a donkey's morning bray really is.
This is a getting-up rhyme, so save it for the morning. Say it while you open the curtains, and give a proper hee-haw at 'bray' with no dignity at all. A sleepy child who will not wake usually joins in by the second go. Blow an imaginary horn on the last line. It works better the sillier you are.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition