1. beast of burden - Noun
2. beast of burden - Phrase
an animal such as a donkey or ox or elephant used for transporting loads or doing other heavy work
Source: WordNetThe will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its possession. Martin Luther
Superstition changes a man to a beast, fanaticism makes him a wild beast, and despotism a beast of burden. Jean-Francois de La Harpe
A donkey is a very useful beast of burden. Lawrence Wright
By the Gold Rush years of the 19th century, the burro was the beast of burden of choice of early prospectors in the western United States. Source: Internet
Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey (1879), portrays the animal as a stubborn beast of burden. Source: Internet
I'm trying to express the inner nature and symbolism of the character or, in this case, this beast of burden. Source: Internet