Explore "The Ears of the Hare" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Some beast with horns did gore / The lion; and that sovereign dread, / Resolved to suffer so no more, / Straight banish'd from his realm, 'tis said, / All sorts of beasts with horns -- / Rams, bulls, goats, stags, and unicorns. / Such brutes all promptly fled. / A hare, the shadow of his ears perceiving, / Could hardly help believing / That some vile spy for horns would take them, / And food for accusation make them. / 'Adieu,' said he, 'my neighbour cricket; / I take my foreign ticket. / My ears, should I stay here, / Will turn to horns, I fear; / And were they shorter than a bird's, / I fear the effect of words. ' / 'These horns! ' the cricket answer'd; 'why, / God made them ears who can deny? ' / 'Yes,' said the coward, 'still they'll make them horns, / And horns, perhaps of unicorns! / In vain shall I protest, / With all the learning of the schools: / My reasons they will send to rest / In th' Hospital of Fools. '[1][2]
[1]: _Hospital of Fools_, i.e., madhouse.