According to Agnes E. Mackay, author of La Fontaine and His Friends: A Biography, Jean De La Fontaine was born in 1621 in a French province, Champagne. Because of his indolent nature, his family decided to make of him a priest by sending him to a seminary. But young La Fontaine was not gifted for theology, only literature attracted him so his dad sent for him and married Jean in 1647 to Marie Héricart. Back home, …showed first 75 words of 2944 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2944 total…The Lark and Her Young”) paints country life. The lyrical landscapes in “The Oak and the Reed are, according to Mackay, “so sensitively felt that there is not a word, and more-not a letter-in the poem that does not add to its significant beauty (203). By means of animals, trees, rivers, and other non-human characters, Jean de La Fontaine’s fables are humoristic, artistic, mature, profound, and wise poems that interest many different levels of readers.