Explore "The Fox and the Turkeys" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Against a robber fox, a tree / Some turkeys served as citadel. / That villain, much provoked to see / Each standing there as sentinel, / Cried out, 'Such witless birds / At me stretch out their necks, and gobble! / No, by the powers! I'll give them trouble. ' / He verified his words. / The moon, that shined full on the oak, / Seem'd then to help the turkey folk. / But fox, in arts of siege well versed, / Ransack'd his bag of tricks accursed. / He feign'd himself about to climb; / Walk'd on his hinder legs sublime; / Then death most aptly counterfeited, / And seem'd anon resuscitated. / A practiser of wizard arts / Could not have fill'd so many parts. / In moonlight he contrived to raise / His tail, and make it seem a blaze: / And countless other tricks like that. / Meanwhile, no turkey slept or sat. / Their constant vigilance at length, / As hoped the fox, wore out their strength. / Bewilder'd by the rigs he run, / They lost their balance one by one. / As Renard slew, he laid aside, / Till nearly half of them had died; / Then proudly to his larder bore, / And laid them up, an ample store.
A foe, by being over-heeded, / Has often in his plan succeeded.