Book VI: The Sun and the Frogs
Rejoicing on their tyrant's wedding-day,The people drown'd their care in drink;While from the general joy did Aesop shrink,And show'd its folly in this way.'The sun,' said he, 'once took it in his headTo have a partner for his bed.From swamps, and ponds, and marshy bogs,Up rose the wailings of the frogs."What shall we do, should he have progeny?"Said they to Destiny;"One sun we scarcely can endure,And half-a-dozen, we are sure,Will dry the very sea.Adieu to marsh and fen!Our race will perish then,Or be obliged to fixTheir dwelling in the Styx!"For such an humble animal,The frog, I take it, reason'd well.'
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- styx n.
- The principal river of the lower world, which had to be crossed in passing to the regions of the dead.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book VI: The Sun and the Frogs 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 VI: The Sun and the Frogs, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/6-12.html, id L28325.
Form and metre
Book VI: The Sun and the Frogs is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBACCDD--EE-FFGGHH dayA · drinkB · shrinkB · wayA · headC · bedC · bogsD · frogsD · progeny · destiny · endureE · sureE · sea · fenF · thenF · fixG · styxG · animalH · wellH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rejoicing on their tyrant's wedding-day, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The people drown'd their care in drink; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| While from the general joy did Aesop shrink, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| And show'd its folly in this way. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| 'The sun,' said he, 'once took it in his head | 10 | ·········· |
| To have a partner for his bed. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From swamps, and ponds, and marshy bogs, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Up rose the wailings of the frogs. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "What shall we do, should he have progeny?" | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Said they to Destiny; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| "One sun we scarcely can endure, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And half-a-dozen, we are sure, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Will dry the very sea. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Adieu to marsh and fen! | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Our race will perish then, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Or be obliged to fix | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Their dwelling in the Styx!" | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For such an humble animal, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| The frog, I take it, reason'd well.' | 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.