Book II: The Bitch and Her Friend
A bitch, that felt her time approaching,And had no place for parturition,Went to a female friend, and, broachingHer delicate condition,Got leave herself to shutWithin the other's hut.At proper time the lender cameHer little premises to claim.The bitch crawl'd meekly to the door,And humbly begg'd a fortnight more.Her little pups, she said, could hardly walk.In short, the lender yielded to her talk.The second term expired; the friend had comeTo take possession of her house and home.The bitch, this time, as if she would have bit her,Replied, 'I'm ready, madam, with my litter,To go when you can turn me out.'Her pups, you see, were fierce and stout.
The creditor, from whom a villain borrows,Will fewer shillings get again than sorrows.If you have trusted people of this sort,You'll have to plead, and dun, and fight; in short,If in your house you let one step a foot,He'll surely step the other in to boot.
Words in this poem
- bitch n.
- The female of the canine kind, as of the dog, wolf, and fox. [OE. biche, bicche, AS. bicce; cf. Icel. bikkja, G. betze, peize.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- meekly adv.
- In a meek manner.
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- fortnight n.
- The space of fourteen days; two weeks. [Contr. fr. fourteen nights, our ancestors reckoning time by nights and winters; so, also, seven nights, sennight, a week.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book II: The Bitch and Her Friend 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 Bitch and Her Friend, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/2-7.html, id L28239.
Form and metre
Book II: The Bitch and Her Friend is 24 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABABCCDDEEFFGG--HH approachingA · parturitionB · broachingA · conditionB · shutC · hutC · cameD · claimD · doorE · moreE · walkF · talkF · comeG · homeG · her · litter · outH · stoutH
- 2 AABB-- borrowsA · sorrowsA · sortB · shortB · foot · boot
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A bitch, that felt her time approaching, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And had no place for parturition, | 9 | ········· |
| Went to a female friend, and, broaching | 9 | ···/···/˘ |
| Her delicate condition, | 7 | ·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Got leave herself to shut | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Within the other's hut. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| At proper time the lender came | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Her little premises to claim. | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| The bitch crawl'd meekly to the door, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And humbly begg'd a fortnight more. | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Her little pups, she said, could hardly walk. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In short, the lender yielded to her talk. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The second term expired; the friend had come | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| To take possession of her house and home. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The bitch, this time, as if she would have bit her, | 11 | ··········· |
| Replied, 'I'm ready, madam, with my litter, | 11 | ˘/·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| To go when you can turn me out.' | 8 | ········ |
| Her pups, you see, were fierce and stout. | 8 | ········ |
| The creditor, from whom a villain borrows, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| Will fewer shillings get again than sorrows. | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| If you have trusted people of this sort, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| You'll have to plead, and dun, and fight; in short, | 10 | ·········· |
| If in your house you let one step a foot, | 10 | ·········· |
| He'll surely step the other in to boot. | 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.