Book XII: The Ape
There is an ape in Paris,To which was given a wife:Like many a one that marries,This ape, in brutal strife,Soon beat her out of life.Their infant cries,--perhaps not fed,--But cries, I ween, in vain;The father laughs: his wife is dead,And he has other loves again,Which he will also beat, I think,--Return'd from tavern drown'd in drink.
For aught that's good, you need not lookAmong the imitative tribe;A monkey be it, or what makes a book--The worse, I deem--the aping scribe.
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- scribe n.
- One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an offical or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist. [L. scriba, fr. scribere to write; cf. Gr. scarify. Cf. Ascribe, Describe, Script, Scrivener, Scrutoire.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book XII: The Ape 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 XII: The Ape, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/12-19.html, id L28445.
Form and metre
Book XII: The Ape is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-AABCBCDD paris · wifeA · marries · strifeA · lifeA · fedB · vainC · deadB · againC · thinkD · drinkD
- 2 ABAB lookA · tribeB · bookA · scribeB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There is an ape in Paris, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To which was given a wife: | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Like many a one that marries, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| This ape, in brutal strife, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Soon beat her out of life. | 6 | ······ |
| Their infant cries,--perhaps not fed,-- | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| But cries, I ween, in vain; | 6 | ······ |
| The father laughs: his wife is dead, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And he has other loves again, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Which he will also beat, I think,-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Return'd from tavern drown'd in drink. | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| For aught that's good, you need not look | 8 | ········ |
| Among the imitative tribe; | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| A monkey be it, or what makes a book-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The worse, I deem--the aping scribe. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.