The Old Man and his Sons by Jean de La Fontaine

All power is feeble with dissension: / For this I quote the Phrygian slave.[1] / If aught I add to his invention, / It is our manners to engrave, / And not from any envious wishes; -- / I'm not so foolishly ambitious. / Phaedrus enriches oft his story, / In quest -- I doubt it not -- of glory: / Such thoughts were idle in my breast. / An aged man, near going to his rest, / His gather'd sons thus solemnly address'd: -- / 'To break this bunch of arrows you may try; / And, first, the string that binds them I untie. ' / The eldest, having tried with might and main, / Exclaim'd, 'This bundle I resign / To muscles sturdier than mine. ' / The second tried, and bow'd himself in vain. / The youngest took them with the like success. / All were obliged their weakness to confess. / Unharm'd the arrows pass'd from son to son; / Of all they did not break a single one. / 'Weak fellows! ' said their sire, 'I now must show / What in the case my feeble strength can do. ' / They laugh'd, and thought their father but in joke, / Till, one by one, they saw the arrows broke. / 'See, concord's power! ' replied the sire; 'as long / As you in love agree, you will be strong. / I go, my sons, to join our fathers good; / Now promise me to live as brothers should, / And soothe by this your dying father's fears. ' / Each strictly promised with a flood of tears. / Their father took them by the hand, and died; / And soon the virtue of their vows was tried. / Their sire had left a large estate / Involved in lawsuits intricate; / Here seized a creditor, and there / A neighbour levied for a share. / At first the trio nobly bore / The brunt of all this legal war. / But short their friendship as 'twas rare. / Whom blood had join'd -- and small the wonder! -- / The force of interest drove asunder; / And, as is wont in such affairs, / Ambition, envy, were co-heirs. / In parcelling their sire's estate, / They quarrel, quibble, litigate, / Each aiming to supplant the other. / The judge, by turns, condemns each brother. / Their creditors make new assault, / Some pleading error, some default. / The sunder'd brothers disagree; / For counsel one, have counsels three. / All lose their wealth; and now their sorrows / Bring fresh to mind those broken arrows.[2]

[1]: _Phrygan slave._ -- Aesop. See Translator's Preface.