Poetry · Chapter
Duck and Oyster explained
A fable about a duck that tries to eat an oyster but gets trapped and drowned when the oyster closes its shell.
What happens
A fable about a duck that tries to eat an oyster but gets trapped and drowned when the oyster closes its shell. The duck's body floats to shore with the oyster still attached, and a shyster on the beach takes the duck and oysters for his own meal, illustrating the folly of overreaching and the way others profit from one's misfortune.
Themes in this chapter
Moral Lessons and Domestic Virtue
The poem serves as a cautionary fable about the dangers of greed and overreaching, as the duck's desire for a 'glorious treat' leads to its death and the loss of its prize to a 'hungry sinner.'
Key passages
“None can the poor duck's fate bewail, For it reckoned without its host, It strove for conquest and did fail, Fighting for spoil it battle lost.”
No one can feel sorry for the duck because it failed to consider the risks and consequences of its actions, and it lost the fight it started.
The moral of the story is explicitly stated: the duck's failure to anticipate the oyster's defense leads to its downfall.
“This chap he did not plow nor sow, But from sea and land he did reap The wealth that others caused to grow, And thus he treasures up did heap.”
This man did not work to produce anything himself, but instead gathered the fruits of others' labor from both sea and land, accumulating wealth without effort.
The poem ends by criticizing the shyster who profits from the duck's misfortune without contributing any work of his own.