Book IV: The Camel and the Floating Sticks
The first who saw the humpback'd camelFled off for life; the next approach'd with care;The third with tyrant rope did boldly dareThe desert wanderer to trammel.Such is the power of use to changeThe face of objects new and strange;Which grow, by looking at, so tame,They do not even seem the same.And since this theme is up for our attention,A certain watchman I will mention,Who, seeing something farAway upon the ocean,Could not but speak his notionThat 'twas a ship of war.Some minutes more had past,--A bomb-ketch 'twas without a sail,And then a boat, and then a bale,And floating sticks of wood at last!
Full many things on earth, I wot,Will claim this tale,--and well they may;They're something dreadful far away,But near at hand--they're not.
Words in this poem
- boldly adv.
- In a bold manner. [AS. bealdlice.]
- trammel n.
- A kind of net for catching birds, fishes, or other prey. Carew. [F. tramail, trémail, a net, LL. tremaculum, tremacle, a kind of net for taking fish; L. tres three + macula a mesh. See Three, and Mail armor.]
- watchman n.
- One set to watch; a person who keeps guard; a guard; a sentinel.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book IV: The Camel and the Floating Sticks 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 IV: The Camel and the Floating Sticks, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/4-10.html, id L28280.
Form and metre
Book IV: The Camel and the Floating Sticks is 22 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 ABBACCDDEE-FF-GHHG camelA · careB · dareB · trammelA · changeC · strangeC · tameD · sameD · attentionE · mentionE · far · oceanF · notionF · war · pastG · sailH · baleH · lastG
- 2 -AA- wot · mayA · awayA · not
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The first who saw the humpback'd camel | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Fled off for life; the next approach'd with care; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The third with tyrant rope did boldly dare | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The desert wanderer to trammel. | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Such is the power of use to change | 8 | ···/···· |
| The face of objects new and strange; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Which grow, by looking at, so tame, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They do not even seem the same. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And since this theme is up for our attention, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| A certain watchman I will mention, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Who, seeing something far | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Away upon the ocean, | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| Could not but speak his notion | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That 'twas a ship of war. | 6 | ······ |
| Some minutes more had past,-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A bomb-ketch 'twas without a sail, | 8 | ········ |
| And then a boat, and then a bale, | 8 | ········ |
| And floating sticks of wood at last! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Full many things on earth, I wot, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Will claim this tale,--and well they may; | 8 | ········ |
| They're something dreadful far away, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| But near at hand--they're not. | 6 | ······ |
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.