"A Sip of Aesop"

According to legend, on a Greek island in the sixth century B.C., a man named Aesop lived, labored as a slave, and created more than two hundred stories that would capture imaginations across the centuries and around the world.  While details of Aesop's life remain shrouded in mystery,  fables credited to the Greek slave survive through storytelling and in books published in many languages.  A fable is a short little story that ends with a moral-- an important message or lesson to be learned from the story.  Many of Aesop's fables feature talking animals that behave like humans. Today's poem, from A Sip of Aesop by Jane Yolen, offers a rhyming version of one of Aesop's well-known tales. 

The Hare and the Tortoise

"Slowpoke, lowpoke,"

Called the hare.

"You no-go-poke

Anywhere."

Tortoise answered,

"Slow as day,

I'll outrun you 

Anyway."

An oval racetrack

They laid out

To prove the faster

Without doubt.

Out in front

Hare quickly leapt,

While steady, steady

Tortoise crept.

Then halfway there,

Hare took a nap,

So tortoise caught him

On that lap.

Hare dreamed his winnings

Quite away,

And tortoise took 

The prize that day.

The Hare and The Tortoise
Van Cortlandt Park, New York

 

 MORAL:

 If naps and laps

 You do confuse,

 Then you are surely 

 Bound to lose. 

 Many say that the moral of The Hare and The Tortoise is slow and steady wins the race.  If that's the case, Poetry Paraders, it might be a good idea to slowly and steadily proceed to 398.2 in the LMC and check out Aesop's fables!