Book VI: The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark
From wrongs of wicked men we drawExcuses for our own:--Such is the universal law.Would you have mercy shown,Let yours be clearly known.
A fowler's mirror served to snareThe little tenants of the air.A lark there saw her pretty face,And was approaching to the place.A hawk, that sailed on highLike vapour in the sky,Came down, as still as infant's breath,On her who sang so near her death.She thus escaped the fowler's steel,The hawk's malignant claws to feel.While in his cruel way,The pirate pluck'd his prey,Upon himself the net was sprung.'O fowler,' pray'd he in the hawkish tongue,'Release me in thy clemency!I never did a wrong to thee.'The man replied, ''Tis true;And did the lark to you?'
Words in this poem
- vapour n.
- Any substance in the gaseous, or aëriform, state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of a liquid or solid. [OE. vapour, OF. vapour, vapor, vapeur, F. vapeur, L. vapor; probably for cvapor, and akin to Gr. kvepti to breathe, smell, Russ. kopote fine soot. Cf. Vapid.]
- fowler n.
- A sportsman who pursues wild fowl, or takes or kills for food.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book VI: The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark 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 Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/6-15.html, id L28328.
Form and metre
Book VI: The Fowler, the Hawk, and the Lark is 23 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 ABABB drawA · ownB · lawA · shownB · knownB
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII snareA · airA · faceB · placeB · highC · skyC · breathD · deathD · steelE · feelE · wayF · preyF · sprungG · tongueG · clemencyH · theeH · trueI · youI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From wrongs of wicked men we draw | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Excuses for our own:-- | 7 | ˘/˘·/˘· |
| Such is the universal law. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Would you have mercy shown, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let yours be clearly known. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A fowler's mirror served to snare | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The little tenants of the air. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A lark there saw her pretty face, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And was approaching to the place. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| A hawk, that sailed on high | 6 | ······ |
| Like vapour in the sky, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Came down, as still as infant's breath, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On her who sang so near her death. | 8 | ········ |
| She thus escaped the fowler's steel, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| The hawk's malignant claws to feel. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| While in his cruel way, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The pirate pluck'd his prey, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Upon himself the net was sprung. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| 'O fowler,' pray'd he in the hawkish tongue, | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| 'Release me in thy clemency! | 8 | ˘/···/˘˘ |
| I never did a wrong to thee.' | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The man replied, ''Tis true; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And did the lark to you?' | 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.