Creature of compassion, we hear (4)
I believe the answer is:
hart
'creature' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'compassion we hear' is the wordplay.
'compassion' becomes 'heart' (I've seen this before).
'we hear' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'heart' is a homophone of 'HART'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hart that I've seen before include "Deer; Lorenz --, lyricist" , "Mature male deer" , "Beast" , "Male deer; Rodgers collaborator" , "Animal" .)