The Fishes and the Cormorant

Name: The Fishes and the Cormorant
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

An aged, blind cormorant can no longer catch enough fish to satisfy his hunger. Necessity inspires him to deceive a crab, whom he sends to warn the fishes that the lord of the water will soon drain their pond and destroy them. Alarmed, the fishes send representatives to question the cormorant. He advises them to move and offers to carry them one by one to a hidden natural pool among desert rocks, safe from human treachery. The fish republic believes him and obediently allows itself to be transported singly. Instead of rescuing them, the cormorant brings them to a shallow, narrow pool beneath a lonely rock, where he can easily consume them for his daily food. Their fate teaches that creatures lacking ordinary sense place themselves at the mercy of devourers. The poem adds that remaining behind would not necessarily have saved them, since human beings might also have consumed many of them; whether death comes from human or beast, today or tomorrow, the difference in suffering is slight.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Moral Literature · 721 words

First lines

No pond nor pool within his haunt / But paid a certain cormorant / Its contribution from its fishes, / And stock'd his kitchen with good dishes. / Yet, when old age the bird had chill'd, / His kitchen was less amply fill'd. / All cormorants, however grey, / Must die, or for themselves purvey. / But ours had now become so blind, / His finny prey he could not find; / And, having neither hook nor net, / His appetite was poorly met. / What hope, with famine thus infested? / Necessity, whom history mentions, / A famous mother of inventions, / The following stratagem suggested: / He found upon the water's brink / A crab, to which said he, 'My friend, / A weighty errand let me send: / Go quicker than a wink -- / Down to the fishes sink, / And tell them they are doom'd to die; / For, ere eight days have hasten'd by, / Its lord will fish this water dry. ' / The crab, as fast as she could scrabble, / Went down, and told the scaly rabble. / What bustling, gathering, agitation! / Straight up they send a deputation / To wait upon the ancient bird. / 'Sir Cormorant, whence hast thou heard / This dreadful news? And what / Assurance of it hast thou got? / How such a danger can we shun? / Pray tell us, what is to be done? / 'Why, change your dwelling-place,' said he, / 'What, change our dwelling! How can we? ' / 'O, by your leave, I'll take that care, / And, one by one, in safety bear / You all to my retreat: / The path's unknown / To any feet, / Except my own. / A pool, scoop'd out by Nature's hands, / Amidst the desert rocks and sands, / Where human traitors never come, / Shall save your people from their doom. ' / The fish republic swallow'd all, / And, coming at the fellow's call, / Were singly borne away to stock / A pond beneath a lonely rock; / And there good prophet cormorant, / Proprietor and bailiff sole, / From narrow water, clear and shoal, / With ease supplied his daily want, / And taught them, at their own expense, / That heads well stored with common sense / Give no devourers confidence. -- / Still did the change not hurt their case, / Since, had they staid, the human race, / Successful by pernicious art, / Would have consumed as large a part. / What matters who your flesh devours, / Of human or of bestial powers? / In this respect, or wild or tame, / All stomachs seem to me the same: / The odds is small, in point of sorrow, / Of death to-day, or death to-morrow.[1]

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Similar titles

Genres

Fable — The work is a short moral tale featuring talking animals whose actions illustrate a practical lesson about gullibility, deception, and predation.
Animal Fable — A cormorant, crab, and fish act as human-like speakers and social figures, while retaining their animal roles in a predator-prey narrative.
Moral Literature — The closing commentary explicitly draws a lesson: those lacking common sense place confidence in devourers and become vulnerable to exploitation.
Allegory — The fish republic and deceitful cormorant allegorically represent credulous communities, manipulative authorities, and the dangers of trusting self-interested protectors.

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The Fishes and the Cormorant is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1678 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Animal Fable, Moral Literature, Allegory, Didactic Poetry
Length: 721 words
Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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