The Eagle and the Owl by Jean de La Fontaine

The eagle and the owl, resolved to cease / Their war, embraced in pledge of peace. / On faith of king, on faith of owl, they swore / That they would eat each other's chicks no more. / 'But know you mine? ' said Wisdom's bird.[1] / 'Not I, indeed,' the eagle cried. / 'The worse for that,' the owl replied: / 'I fear your oath's a useless word; / I fear that you, as king, will not / Consider duly who or what: / You kings and gods, of what's before ye, / Are apt to make one category. / Adieu, my young, if you should meet them! ' / 'Describe them, then, or let me greet them, / And, on my life, I will not eat them,' / The eagle said. The owl replied: / 'My little ones, I say with pride, / For grace of form cannot be match'd, -- / The prettiest birds that e'er were hatch'd; / By this you cannot fail to know them; / 'Tis needless, therefore, that I show them. / Pray don't forget, but keep this mark in view, / Lest fate should curse my happy nest by you. ' / At length God gives the owl a set of heirs, / And while at early eve abroad he fares, / In quest of birds and mice for food, / Our eagle haply spies the brood, / As on some craggy rock they sprawl, / Or nestle in some ruined wall, / (But which it matters not at all,) / And thinks them ugly little frights, / Grim, sad, with voice like shrieking sprites. / 'These chicks,' says he, 'with looks almost infernal, / Can't be the darlings of our friend nocturnal. / I'll sup of them. ' And so he did, not slightly: -- / He never sups, if he can help it, lightly. / The owl return'd; and, sad, he found / Nought left but claws upon the ground. / He pray'd the gods above and gods below / To smite the brigand who had caused his woe. / Quoth one, 'On you alone the blame must fall; / Or rather on the law of nature, / Which wills that every earthly creature / Shall think its like the loveliest of all. / You told the eagle of your young ones' graces; / You gave the picture of their faces: -- / Had it of likeness any traces? '[2]

[1]: _Wisdom's bird_. -- The owl was the bird of Minerva, as the eagle was that of Jupiter.