Book II: The Lion and the Rat
To show to all your kindness, it behoves:There's none so small but you his aid may need.I quote two fables for this weighty creed,Which either of them fully proves.From underneath the swardA rat, quite off his guard,Popp'd out between a lion's paws.The beast of royal bearingShow'd what a lion wasThe creature's life by sparing--A kindness well repaid;For, little as you would have thoughtHis majesty would ever need his aid,It proved full soonA precious boon.Forth issuing from his forest glen,T' explore the haunts of men,In lion net his majesty was caught,From which his strength and rageServed not to disengage.The rat ran up, with grateful glee,Gnaw'd off a rope, and set him free.
By time and toil we severWhat strength and rage could never.
Words in this poem
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book II: The Lion and the 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 II: The Lion and the Rat, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/2-11.html, id L28243.
Form and metre
Book II: The Lion and the Rat is 24 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 -AA---BCBCDEDFFGGEHHII behoves · needA · creedA · proves · sward · guard · pawsB · bearingC · wasB · sparingC · repaidD · thoughtE · aidD · soonF · boonF · glenG · menG · caughtE · rageH · disengageH · gleeI · freeI
- 2 AA severA · neverA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To show to all your kindness, it behoves: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There's none so small but you his aid may need. | 10 | ·········· |
| I quote two fables for this weighty creed, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Which either of them fully proves. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| From underneath the sward | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| A rat, quite off his guard, | 6 | ······ |
| Popp'd out between a lion's paws. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The beast of royal bearing | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Show'd what a lion was | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The creature's life by sparing-- | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| A kindness well repaid; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| For, little as you would have thought | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His majesty would ever need his aid, | 8 | ·/˘·/··· |
| It proved full soon | 4 | ···· |
| A precious boon. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Forth issuing from his forest glen, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| T' explore the haunts of men, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| In lion net his majesty was caught, | 8 | ·/··/˘·· |
| From which his strength and rage | 6 | ······ |
| Served not to disengage. | 7 | ·˘··˘˘/ |
| The rat ran up, with grateful glee, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Gnaw'd off a rope, and set him free. | 8 | ········ |
| By time and toil we sever | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| What strength and rage could never. | 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.