The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark

The fable teaches that those who ask mercy for themselves should first have shown mercy to others. A fowler uses a mirror to trap small birds, and a lark, attracted by her reflected face, approaches the snare. Before she reaches it, a hawk descends silently and seizes her, so that she escapes the fowler’s steel only to suffer the hawk’s claws. As the hawk plucks his prey, the fowler’s net catches him. The hawk begs release, claiming he has done the fowler no harm, but the fowler answers by asking whether the hawk had done no harm to the lark.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Moral Literature, Didactic Poetry · 247 words

First lines

From wrongs of wicked men we draw / Excuses for our own: -- / Such is the universal law. / Would you have mercy shown, / Let yours be clearly known.

• Open reader

Similar titles

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• The Wallet by Jean De La Fontaine
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• The Lion And The Rat by Jean De La Fontaine
• Death And The Unfortunate by Jean De La Fontaine
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Genres

• Fable — The work is a brief animal tale that culminates in an explicit moral lesson about mercy, wrongdoing, and reciprocal justice.
• Moral Literature — Its central purpose is ethical instruction: those seeking clemency should themselves have shown compassion to others.
• Didactic Poetry — Written in verse, the poem uses a compact narrative and stated maxim to teach a practical moral principle.
• Animal Allegory — The fowler, hawk, and lark function as representative figures whose actions illustrate broader human behavior, cruelty, and self-justification.

Tags

French fable · verse fable · seventeenth-century literature · moral allegory · mercy · justice · reciprocity · moral responsibility · hypocrisy · predation · punishment · poetic justice

What this Textopian page supports

The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 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: 1678 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Moral Literature, Didactic Poetry, Animal Allegory, Narrative Poetry
• Length: 247 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark 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