Book III: The Weasel in the Granary
A weasel through a hole contrived to squeeze,(She was recovering from disease,)Which led her to a farmer's hoard.There lodged, her wasted form she cherish'd;Heaven knows the lard and victuals storedThat by her gnawing perish'd!Of which the consequenceWas sudden corpulence.A week or so was past,When having fully broken fast.A noise she heard, and hurriedTo find the hole by which she came,And seem'd to find it not the same;So round she ran, most sadly flurried;And, coming back, thrust out her head,Which, sticking there, she said,'This is the hole, there can't be blunder:What makes it now so small, I wonder,Where, but the other day, I pass'd with ease?'A rat her trouble sees,And cries, 'But with an emptier belly;You enter'd lean, and lean must sally.'What I have said to youHas eke been said to not a few,Who, in a vast variety of cases,Have ventured into such-like places.
Words in this poem
- corpulence n.
- Excessive fatness; fleshiness; obesity. [L. corpulentia: cf. F. corpulence.]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- flurried a.
- Agitated; excited.
- emptier n.
- One who, or that which, empties.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book III: The Weasel in the Granary 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 III: The Weasel in the Granary, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/3-17.html, id L28269.
Form and metre
Book III: The Weasel in the Granary is 26 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 54% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABCBC--DDEFFEGGHHAA--IIJJ squeezeA · diseaseA · hoardB · cherish'dC · storedB · perish'dC · consequence · corpulence · pastD · fastD · hurriedE · cameF · sameF · flurriedE · headG · saidG · blunderH · wonderH · easeA · seesA · belly · sally · youI · fewI · casesJ · placesJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A weasel through a hole contrived to squeeze, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| (She was recovering from disease,) | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Which led her to a farmer's hoard. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| There lodged, her wasted form she cherish'd; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Heaven knows the lard and victuals stored | 8 | /····/˘· |
| That by her gnawing perish'd! | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Of which the consequence | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Was sudden corpulence. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A week or so was past, | 6 | ······ |
| When having fully broken fast. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| A noise she heard, and hurried | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To find the hole by which she came, | 8 | ········ |
| And seem'd to find it not the same; | 8 | ········ |
| So round she ran, most sadly flurried; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And, coming back, thrust out her head, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Which, sticking there, she said, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| 'This is the hole, there can't be blunder: | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| What makes it now so small, I wonder, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where, but the other day, I pass'd with ease?' | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A rat her trouble sees, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And cries, 'But with an emptier belly; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| You enter'd lean, and lean must sally.' | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| What I have said to you | 6 | ······ |
| Has eke been said to not a few, | 8 | ········ |
| Who, in a vast variety of cases, | 10 | ····˘/˘·/˘ |
| Have ventured into such-like places. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
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.