Book V: The Ass Carrying Relics
An ass, with relics for his load,Supposed the worship on the roadMeant for himself alone,And took on lofty airs,Receiving as his ownThe incense and the prayers.Some one, who saw his great mistake,Cried, 'Master Donkey, do not makeYourself so big a fool.Not you they worship, but your pack;They praise the idols on your back,And count yourself a paltry tool.'
'Tis thus a brainless magistrateIs honour'd for his robe of state.
Words in this poem
- donkey n.
- An ass; or (less frequently) a mule. [Prob. dun, in allusion to the color of the animal + a dim. termination.]
- brainless a.
- Without understanding; silly; thougthless; witless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book V: The Ass Carrying Relics 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 V: The Ass Carrying Relics, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/5-14.html, id L28306.
Form and metre
Book V: The Ass Carrying Relics is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABCBCDDEFFE loadA · roadA · aloneB · airsC · ownB · prayersC · mistakeD · makeD · foolE · packF · backF · toolE
- 2 AA magistrateA · stateA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An ass, with relics for his load, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Supposed the worship on the road | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Meant for himself alone, | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| And took on lofty airs, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Receiving as his own | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| The incense and the prayers. | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Some one, who saw his great mistake, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Cried, 'Master Donkey, do not make | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Yourself so big a fool. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Not you they worship, but your pack; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They praise the idols on your back, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And count yourself a paltry tool.' | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| 'Tis thus a brainless magistrate | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Is honour'd for his robe of state. | 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.