Death and the Woodman by Jean de La Fontaine

A poor, ageing wood-chopper struggles home beneath a heavy load of fagots, burdened not only by his wood but by poverty, exhaustion, hunger, and the demands of his wife, children, soldiers, landlords, and taxes. Overwhelmed by misery, he throws down his load and calls upon Death. Death immediately appears and asks how he may help. Instead of asking to die, the woodman requests only that Death help him place the fagots back upon his back. The fable concludes that, though Death may seem able to cure all suffering, it is better to endure life than to invite death.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Moral Literature, Allegory · 267 words

First lines

A poor wood-chopper, with his fagot load, / Whom weight of years, as well as load, oppress'd, / Sore groaning in his smoky hut to rest, / Trudged wearily along his homeward road. / At last his wood upon the ground he throws, / And sits him down to think o'er all his woes. / To joy a stranger, since his hapless birth, / What poorer wretch upon this rolling earth? / No bread sometimes, and ne'er a moment's rest; / Wife, children, soldiers, landlords, public tax, / All wait the swinging of his old, worn axe, / And paint the veriest picture of a man unblest. / On Death he calls. Forthwith that monarch grim / Appears, and asks what he should do for him. / 'Not much, indeed; a little help I lack -- / To put these fagots on my back.'

• Open reader

Similar titles

• The Cock And The Fox by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Cock And The Pearl by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Frog That Wished To Be As Big As The Ox by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Council Held By The Rats by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Boy And The Schoolmaster by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Two Mules by Jean De La Fontaine

Genres

• Fable — The poem is a concise moral tale featuring an ordinary laborer, Death personified as a speaking figure, and an explicit concluding lesson about enduring hardship rather than seeking death.
• Moral Literature — Its central purpose is didactic: the final maxim directly instructs readers that perseverance in suffering is preferable to death.
• Allegory — The woodman represents burdened human life and social hardship, while Death embodies the feared final remedy that people may invoke abstractly but recoil from when it arrives.
• Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete dramatic incident in verse, moving from the woodman's labor and complaint to Death's appearance and the ironic resolution.

Tags

French fable · verse fable · seventeenth-century literature · rural poverty · woodcutter · old age · physical labor · burden · exhaustion · hunger · family obligations · taxation

What this Textopian page supports

Death and the Woodman is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1668 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Moral Literature, Allegory, Narrative Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
• Length: 267 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for Death and the Woodman by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine