Book V: The Ears of the Hare
Some beast with horns did goreThe lion; and that sovereign dread,Resolved to suffer so no more,Straight banish'd from his realm, 'tis said,All sorts of beasts with horns--Rams, bulls, goats, stags, and unicorns.Such brutes all promptly fled.A hare, the shadow of his ears perceiving,Could hardly help believingThat some vile spy for horns would take them,And food for accusation make them.'Adieu,' said he, 'my neighbour cricket;I take my foreign ticket.My ears, should I stay here,Will turn to horns, I fear;And were they shorter than a bird's,I fear the effect of words.''These horns!' the cricket answer'd; 'why,God made them ears who can deny?''Yes,' said the coward, 'still they'll make them horns,And horns, perhaps of unicorns!In vain shall I protest,With all the learning of the schools:My reasons they will send to restIn th' Hospital of Fools.'
Words in this poem
- promptly adv.
- In a prompt manner.
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- hospital n.
- A place for shelter or entertainment; an inn. [OF. hospital, ospital, F. hôpital, LL. hospitale (or perh. E. hospital is directly from the Late Latin), from L. hospitalis relating to a guest, hospitalia apar]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book V: The Ears of the Hare 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 Ears of the Hare, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/5-4.html, id L28296.
Form and metre
Book V: The Ears of the Hare is 25 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABABCCBDDEEFFGGHHIICCJKJK goreA · dreadB · moreA · saidB · hornsC · unicornsC · fledB · perceivingD · believingD · themE · themE · cricketF · ticketF · hereG · fearG · bird'sH · wordsH · whyI · denyI · hornsC · unicornsC · protestJ · schoolsK · restJ · foolsK
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some beast with horns did gore | 6 | ······ |
| The lion; and that sovereign dread, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Resolved to suffer so no more, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Straight banish'd from his realm, 'tis said, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| All sorts of beasts with horns-- | 6 | ······ |
| Rams, bulls, goats, stags, and unicorns. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Such brutes all promptly fled. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A hare, the shadow of his ears perceiving, | 11 | ···/····˘/˘ |
| Could hardly help believing | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| That some vile spy for horns would take them, | 9 | ········· |
| And food for accusation make them. | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| 'Adieu,' said he, 'my neighbour cricket; | 9 | ˘/···/˘/˘ |
| I take my foreign ticket. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| My ears, should I stay here, | 6 | ······ |
| Will turn to horns, I fear; | 6 | ······ |
| And were they shorter than a bird's, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I fear the effect of words.' | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| 'These horns!' the cricket answer'd; 'why, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| God made them ears who can deny?' | 8 | ······˘/ |
| 'Yes,' said the coward, 'still they'll make them horns, | 9 | ···/····· |
| And horns, perhaps of unicorns! | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| In vain shall I protest, | 6 | ····/· |
| With all the learning of the schools: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My reasons they will send to rest | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In th' Hospital of Fools.' | 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.