Book I: The City Rat and the Country Rat
A city rat, one night,Did, with a civil stoop,A country rat inviteTo end a turtle soup.
Upon a Turkey carpetThey found the table spread,And sure I need not harp itHow well the fellows fed.
The entertainment wasA truly noble one;But some unlucky causeDisturb'd it when begun.
It was a slight rat-tat,That put their joys to rout;Out ran the city rat;His guest, too, scamper'd out.
Our rats but fairly quit,The fearful knocking ceased.'Return we,' cried the cit,To finish there our feast.
'No,' said the rustic rat;'To-morrow dine with me.I'm not offended atYour feast so grand and free,--
'For I've no fare resembling;But then I eat at leisure,And would not swap, for pleasureSo mix'd with fear and trembling.'
Words in this poem
- fairly adv.
- In a fairmanner; clearly; openly; plainly; fully; distinctly; frankly.
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- swap v. t.
- To strike; -- with off. [OE. swappen to strike; cf. E. to strike a bargain; perh. akin to E. sweep. Cf. Swap a blow, Swap, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book I: The City Rat and the Country Rat is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Fables of La Fontaine, Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, the Elizur Wright 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: Jean de La Fontaine, Book I: The City Rat and the Country Rat, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/1-9.html, id L28219.
Form and metre
Book I: The City Rat and the Country Rat is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABAB nightA · stoopB · inviteA · soupB
- 2 ABAB carpetA · spreadB · itA · fedB
- 3 ABAB wasA · oneB · causeA · begunB
- 4 ABAB tatA · routB · ratA · outB
- 5 ABAB quitA · ceasedB · citA · feastB
- 6 ABAB ratA · meB · atA · freeB
- 7 ABBA resemblingA · leisureB · pleasureB · tremblingA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A city rat, one night, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Did, with a civil stoop, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A country rat invite | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| To end a turtle soup. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Upon a Turkey carpet | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| They found the table spread, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And sure I need not harp it | 7 | ······· |
| How well the fellows fed. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The entertainment was | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| A truly noble one; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| But some unlucky cause | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Disturb'd it when begun. | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| It was a slight rat-tat, | 6 | ······ |
| That put their joys to rout; | 6 | ······ |
| Out ran the city rat; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| His guest, too, scamper'd out. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Our rats but fairly quit, | 6 | /··/˘· |
| The fearful knocking ceased. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| 'Return we,' cried the cit, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| To finish there our feast. | 6 | ·/˘·/· |
| 'No,' said the rustic rat; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| 'To-morrow dine with me. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I'm not offended at | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Your feast so grand and free,-- | 6 | ······ |
| 'For I've no fare resembling; | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| But then I eat at leisure, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And would not swap, for pleasure | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| So mix'd with fear and trembling.' | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.