Book V: The Ploughman and His Sons
The farmer's patient care and toilAre oftener wanting than the soil.
A wealthy ploughman drawing near his end,Call'd in his sons apart from every friend,And said, 'When of your sire bereft,The heritage our fathers leftGuard well, nor sell a single field.A treasure in it is conceal'd:The place, precisely, I don't know,But industry will serve to show.The harvest past, Time's forelock take,And search with plough, and spade, and rake;Turn over every inch of sod,Nor leave unsearch'd a single clod.'The father died. The sons--and not in vain--Turn'd o'er the soil, and o'er again;That year their acres boreMore grain than e'er before.Though hidden money found they none,Yet had their father wisely done,To show by such a measure,That toil itself is treasure.
Words in this poem
- ploughman n.
- One who plows, or who holds and guides a plow; hence, a husbandman. Chaucer.
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- forelock n.
- The lock of hair that grows from the forepart of the head.
- clod n.
- A lump or mass, especially of earth, turf, or clay. [OE. clodde, latter form of clot. See Clot.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book V: The Ploughman and His Sons 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 Ploughman and His Sons, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/5-9.html, id L28301.
Form and metre
Book V: The Ploughman and His Sons is 22 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 AA toilA · soilA
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ endA · friendA · bereftB · leftB · fieldC · conceal'dC · knowD · showD · takeE · rakeE · sodF · clodF · vainG · againG · boreH · beforeH · noneI · doneI · measureJ · treasureJ
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 farmer's patient care and toil | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Are oftener wanting than the soil. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A wealthy ploughman drawing near his end, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Call'd in his sons apart from every friend, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| And said, 'When of your sire bereft, | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| The heritage our fathers left | 8 | ·/˘˘//˘· |
| Guard well, nor sell a single field. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A treasure in it is conceal'd: | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The place, precisely, I don't know, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| But industry will serve to show. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The harvest past, Time's forelock take, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And search with plough, and spade, and rake; | 8 | ········ |
| Turn over every inch of sod, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Nor leave unsearch'd a single clod.' | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The father died. The sons--and not in vain-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Turn'd o'er the soil, and o'er again; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That year their acres bore | 6 | ···/˘· |
| More grain than e'er before. | 6 | ······ |
| Though hidden money found they none, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Yet had their father wisely done, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To show by such a measure, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That toil itself is treasure. | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
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.