The Ears of the Hare by Jean de La Fontaine

After a horned beast wounds the lion, the frightened ruler banishes every animal with horns from his realm, including rams, bulls, goats, stags, and unicorns. While these creatures flee, a hare sees the shadow of his long ears and fears that informers will mistake them for horns. He bids farewell to his cricket neighbour and prepares to leave, convinced that words and false accusations can transform even ears into the horns of a unicorn. The cricket insists that they are plainly ears, but the hare believes no reasoning can protect him from those determined to call them horns.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Didactic Literature · 308 words

First lines

Some beast with horns did gore / The lion; and that sovereign dread, / Resolved to suffer so no more, / Straight banish'd from his realm, 'tis said, / All sorts of beasts with horns -- / Rams, bulls, goats, stags, and unicorns. / Such brutes all promptly fled. / A hare, the shadow of his ears perceiving, / Could hardly help believing / That some vile spy for horns would take them, / And food for accusation make them. / 'Adieu,' said he, 'my neighbour cricket; / I take my foreign ticket. / My ears, should I stay here, / Will turn to horns, I fear; / And were they shorter than a bird's, / I fear the effect of words. ' / 'These horns! ' the cricket answer'd; 'why, / God made them ears who can deny? ' / 'Yes,' said the coward, 'still they'll make them horns, / And horns, perhaps of unicorns! / In vain shall I protest, / With all the learning of the schools: / My reasons they will send to rest / In th' Hospital of Fools. '[1][2]

• Open reader

Similar titles

• The Hare And The Partridge by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Council Held By The Rats by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Sick Lion And The Fox by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Animals Sending Tribute To Alexander by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Sun And The Frogs Book Vi by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Lion And The Ass Hunting by Jean De La Fontaine

Genres

• Fable — A brief animal tale in which a hare and a cricket speak and act as humans, using an absurd situation to convey a moral lesson about fear and misjudgment.
• Animal Fable — The central characters are animals whose dialogue and behavior allegorically represent human cowardice, authority, and irrational public judgment.
• Didactic Literature — The poem is designed to instruct readers, warning against needless panic and the tendency to let fear distort obvious reality.
• Allegory — The lion's decree and the hare's flight operate beyond the literal animal setting as an allegory of arbitrary persecution and fearful conformity.

Tags

French fable · verse fable · seventeenth century · animal allegory · lion king · hare · cricket · horned animals · unjust punishment · collective punishment · tyranny · fear

What this Textopian page supports

The Ears of the Hare 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, Animal Fable, Didactic Literature, Allegory, Satire
• Length: 308 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Ears of the Hare 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
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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