The Fox and the Crow Lyrics
The old fable of the fox and the crow, told in verse in seven verses. A crow flies to a tree with a piece of cheese, a fox sits underneath and flatters her until she opens her beak to sing, and she drops the cheese when she tries, so the fox runs off with it. The page gives the poem without its closing moral.
The Fox and the Crow
The fox and the crow,
In prose, I well know,
Many good little girls can rehearse:
Perhaps it will tell
Pretty nearly as well,
If we try the same fable in verse.
In a dairy a crow,
Having ventured to go,
Some food for her young ones to seek,
Flew up in the trees,
With a fine piece of cheese,
Which she joyfully held in her beak.
A fox, who lived by,
To the tree saw her fly,
And to share in the prize made a vow;
For having just dined,
He for cheese felt inclined,
So he went and sat under the bough.
She was cunning, he knew,
But so was he too,
And with flattery adapted his plan;
For he knew if she'd speak,
It must fall from her beak,
So, bowing politely, began.
"'T is a very fine day"
(Not a word did she say):
"The wind, I believe, ma'am, is south:
A fine harvest for peas:"
He then looked at the cheese,
But the crow did not open her mouth.
Sly Reynard, not tired,
Her plumage admired,
"How charming! how brilliant its hue!
The voice must be fine,
Of a bird so divine,
Ah, let me just hear it, pray do.
"Believe me, I long
To hear a sweet song!"
The silly crow foolishly tries:
She scarce gave one squall,
When the cheese she let fall,
And the fox ran away with the prize.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-fox-and-the-crow/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Told in a lively, storyteller's voice, with the fox very polite and the crow very proud
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does The Fox and the Crow Mean?
This is a fable, a short story about animals that behave like people. Here is the plot, verse by verse. A crow takes a "fine piece of cheese" from a dairy (a place where milk and cheese are made) and flies up into a tree to share it with her young. A fox who has already dined still wants cheese, so he sits under the tree. He knows the crow is cunning, but he is too. His plan is flattery, praise that is more than he means, said to get something.
He starts with the weather and gets no answer from the crow, because she will not open her beak. So "sly Reynard" praises her feathers (plumage) and her colour, and then says the voice of so fine a bird must be beautiful. Reynard is an old story-name for a fox. In the end the "silly crow" tries to sing, drops the cheese, and the fox runs off with it.
The first verse says the story is usually told in prose, which is plain sentences, and that it may tell "pretty nearly as well" in rhyme. It is a good story for asking why the crow believed the fox, and what she could have done instead.
History and Origin
The tale is an old fable that is usually credited to Aesop, and it has been retold in many languages. This version in rhyming verse comes from Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, a reader edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie. The book's contents page lists the poem under the name "Little B." with the words "Taylor?" in brackets, so the author is not certain.
The poem in the book ends with a short verse headed "Moral", which tells young women to beware of flatterers. This page leaves that verse out and gives the story itself, which is the part children enjoy. Everything else is the book's text.
Learning Activities
- Act it out: one child is the crow with a paper cheese, one is the fox. See whether the fox can make the crow smile without the crow opening her mouth.
- What could she do? talk about what the crow could have done to keep her cheese, and tell the story again with that ending.
- Praise that is true: practise saying one kind thing about each other that is true, and notice how that differs from the fox's compliments.
- Draw the tree: sketch the crow in the tree, the fox below, and the cheese in the middle of the air.