The Hare and the Frogs by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Hare and the Frogs
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

The hare lies awake in his bed, consumed by melancholy and fear. He laments his nervous constitution, which prevents timid creatures like him from eating, sleeping, or enjoying anything without anxiety. Even slight shadows and rustling leaves alarm him, and a tiny noise sends him rushing toward his hole. As he passes a pond, the frogs on its boggy border leap into the water in fright. Seeing that his own presence terrifies them, the hare realizes that even a coward may frighten another creature more cowardly still.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Moral Tale · 427 words

First lines

Once in his bed deep mused the hare, / (What else but muse could he do there? ) / And soon by gloom was much afflicted; -- / To gloom the creature's much addicted. / 'Alas! these constitutions nervous,' / He cried, 'how wretchedly they serve us! / We timid people, by their action, / Can't eat nor sleep with satisfaction; / We can't enjoy a pleasure single, / But with some misery it must mingle. / Myself, for one, am forced by cursed fear / To sleep with open eye as well as ear. / "Correct yourself," says some adviser. / Grows fear, by such advice, the wiser? / Indeed, I well enough descry / That men have fear, as well as I. ' / With such revolving thoughts our hare / Kept watch in soul-consuming care. / A passing shade, or leaflet's quiver / Would give his blood a boiling fever. / Full soon, his melancholy soul / Aroused from dreaming doze / By noise too slight for foes, / He scuds in haste to reach his hole. / He pass'd a pond; and from its border bogs, / Plunge after plunge, in leap'd the timid frogs, / 'Aha! I do to them, I see,' / He cried, 'what others do to me. / The sight of even me, a hare, / Sufficeth some, I find, to scare. / And here, the terror of my tramp / Hath put to rout, it seems, a camp. / The trembling fools! they take me for / The very thunderbolt of war! / I see, the coward never skulk'd a foe / That might not scare a coward still below. '[1]

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Similar titles

Genres

Fable — The poem uses talking or humanly characterized animals to convey a concise moral lesson: even the fearful can frighten someone more fearful.
Animal Fable — A hare and frogs serve as the central figures, with their contrasting fears illustrating human behavior through animals.
Moral Tale — Its plot culminates in an explicit ethical observation about cowardice, fear, and relative vulnerability.
Didactic Literature — Like many of La Fontaine's fables, the work is designed to instruct readers about a universal human trait while entertaining them.

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The Hare and the Frogs is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1668 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Animal Fable, Moral Tale, Didactic Literature, Narrative Poetry
Length: 427 words
Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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