Fact or Fable?
One fasting day, itched by his appetite,A monkey took a fallen tiger's hide,And, where the wearer had been savage, triedTo overpass his model. Scratch and biteGave place, however, to mere gnash of teeth and screams,But, as he prowled, he made his hearers flyWith crying often: "See the Terror of your dreams!"Till, for too long, none ventured thither nigh.Left undisturbed to snatch, and clog his brambled den,With sleepers' bones and plumes of daunted doves,And other spoil of beasts as timid as the men,Who shrank when he mock-roared, from glens and groves--He begged his fellows view the crannies crammed with pelfSordid and tawdry, stained and tinselled things,As ample proof he was the Royal Tiger's self!Year in, year out, thus still he purrs and singsTill tramps a butcher by--he risks his head--In darts the hand and crushes out the yell,And plucks the hide--as from a nut the shell--He holds him nude, and sneers: "An ape you dread!"
Words in this poem
- overpass v. t.
- To go over or beyond; to cross; as, to overpass a river; to overpass limits. [Cf. Surpass.]
- gnash v. t.
- To strike together, as in anger or pain; as, to gnash the teeth. [OE. gnasten, gnaisten, cf. Icel. gnastan a gnashing, gn to gnash, Dan.knaske, Sw. gnissla, D. knarsen, G. knirschen.]
- brambled a.
- Overgrown with brambles.
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- tawdry a.
- Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and g]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fact or Fable? is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, Fact or Fable?, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/fact-or-fable.html, id L26797.
Form and metre
Fact or Fable? is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBACDCDE-E-FGFGHIIH appetiteA · hideB · triedB · biteA · screamsC · flyD · dreamsC · nighD · denE · doves · menE · groves · pelfF · thingsG · selfF · singsG · headH · yellI · shellI · dreadH
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One fasting day, itched by his appetite, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A monkey took a fallen tiger's hide, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And, where the wearer had been savage, tried | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To overpass his model. Scratch and bite | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Gave place, however, to mere gnash of teeth and screams, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| But, as he prowled, he made his hearers fly | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With crying often: "See the Terror of your dreams!" | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Till, for too long, none ventured thither nigh. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Left undisturbed to snatch, and clog his brambled den, | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| With sleepers' bones and plumes of daunted doves, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And other spoil of beasts as timid as the men, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| Who shrank when he mock-roared, from glens and groves-- | 10 | ·········· |
| He begged his fellows view the crannies crammed with pelf | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| Sordid and tawdry, stained and tinselled things, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| As ample proof he was the Royal Tiger's self! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/· |
| Year in, year out, thus still he purrs and sings | 10 | ·········· |
| Till tramps a butcher by--he risks his head-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In darts the hand and crushes out the yell, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And plucks the hide--as from a nut the shell-- | 10 | ·········· |
| He holds him nude, and sneers: "An ape you dread!" | 10 | ·········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.