was the poet Jean de la Fontaine an ecologist before his time?

Was Jean de la Fontaine a militant of animal intelligence and sensitivity? This is the question raised by the magazine through the texts of the French poet, born in 1621 in Château– Thierry. “La Fontaine is someone who knows about nature. His father was water and forest master at Château-Thierry (…). He himself took over this charge“, explains Patrick Scheyder, author and contributor to the media We Demain.

“At school, we should explain that Jean de la Fontaine’s fables are not just metaphors. First of all, he is someone who reverses the roles, who makes animals teach men lessons, whereas usually it is rather the opposite”, analyzes the author. In addition, Jean de la Fontaine, who highlighted animals in his poems, lent them a sensitivity and a real intelligence. The poet is not the only one to have approached ecology in literature, according to Patrick Scheyder. “It’s a way of showing that ecology was not born yesterday and that our questions about the present and the future are long-standing.“, he adds.