The Heron

The Heron by Jean de La Fontaine

A long-legged heron comes to a clear, still river where carp and pike swim so near that he could easily catch them. Though he could profit greatly from the abundance of fish, he refuses to eat before his appointed time and waits for what he considers better food. When his appetite returns, he sees tench leaping from the depths but scorns them as unworthy of a heron. He then rejects a gudgeon as too small and mean. After dismissing these chances, the heron can find no more fish. Hunger finally reduces him to hoping for a single snail on the bank. The tale condemns excessive fastidiousness: those who insist on the best may lose everything, while strength and success require accommodation to circumstances. Its lesson is directed especially at human beings, who often make the same mistake of disdainfully rejecting the little they might gain.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Moral Tale · 601 words

First lines

One day, -- no matter when or where, -- / A long-legg'd heron chanced to fare / By a certain river's brink, / With his long, sharp beak / Helved on his slender neck; / 'Twas a fish-spear, you might think. / The water was clear and still, / The carp and the pike there at will / Pursued their silent fun, / Turning up, ever and anon, / A golden side to the sun. / With ease might the heron have made / Great profits in his fishing trade. / So near came the scaly fry, / They might be caught by the passer-by. / But he thought he better might / Wait for a better appetite -- / For he lived by rule, and could not eat, / Except at his hours, the best of meat. / Anon his appetite return'd once more; / So, approaching again the shore, / He saw some tench taking their leaps, / Now and then, from their lowest deeps. / With as dainty a taste as Horace's rat, / He turn'd away from such food as that. / 'What, tench for a heron! poh! / I scorn the thought, and let them go. ' / The tench refused, there came a gudgeon; / 'For all that,' said the bird, 'I budge on. / I'll ne'er open my beak, if the gods please, / For such mean little fishes as these. ' / He did it for less; / For it came to pass, / That not another fish could he see; / And, at last, so hungry was he, / That he thought it of some avail / To find on the bank a single snail. / Such is the sure result / Of being too difficult. / Would you be strong and great, / Learn to accommodate. / Get what you can, and trust for the rest; / The whole is oft lost by seeking the best. / Above all things beware of disdain; / Where, at most, you have little to gain. / The people are many that make / Every day this sad mistake. / 'Tis not for the herons I put this case, / Ye featherless people, of human race. / -- List to another tale as true, / And you'll hear the lesson brought home to you.[1][2]

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French fable · seventeenth-century literature · didactic poetry · animal allegory · moral tale · riverbank setting · heron · fish · carp and pike · tench and gudgeon · hunger · fastidiousness

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The Heron is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

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