Book VI: The Old Man and the Ass
An old man, riding on his ass,Had found a spot of thrifty grass,And there turn'd loose his weary beast.Old Grizzle, pleased with such a feast,Flung up his heels, and caper'd round,Then roll'd and rubb'd upon the ground,And frisk'd and browsed and bray'd,And many a clean spot made.Arm'd men came on them as he fed:'Let's fly,' in haste the old man said.'And wherefore so?' the ass replied;'With heavier burdens will they ride?''No,' said the man, already started.'Then,' cried the ass, as he departed,'I'll stay, and be--no matter whose;Save you yourself, and leave me loose.But let me tell you, ere you go,(I speak plain French, you know,)My master is my only foe.'
Words in this poem
- grizzle n.
- Gray; a gray color; a mixture of white and black. [F. gris: cf. grisaille hair partly gray, fr. gris gray. See Gris, and cf. Grisaille.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book VI: The Old Man and the Ass 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 Old Man and the Ass, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/6-8.html, id L28321.
Form and metre
Book VI: The Old Man and the Ass is 19 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 95% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIH assA · grassA · beastB · feastB · roundC · groundC · bray'dD · madeD · fedE · saidE · repliedF · rideF · startedG · departedG · whoseH · looseH · goI · knowI · foeH
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 old man, riding on his ass, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Had found a spot of thrifty grass, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And there turn'd loose his weary beast. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Old Grizzle, pleased with such a feast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Flung up his heels, and caper'd round, | 8 | ········ |
| Then roll'd and rubb'd upon the ground, | 8 | ········ |
| And frisk'd and browsed and bray'd, | 7 | ····˘·· |
| And many a clean spot made. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Arm'd men came on them as he fed: | 8 | ········ |
| 'Let's fly,' in haste the old man said. | 8 | ········ |
| 'And wherefore so?' the ass replied; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| 'With heavier burdens will they ride?' | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| 'No,' said the man, already started. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| 'Then,' cried the ass, as he departed, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| 'I'll stay, and be--no matter whose; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Save you yourself, and leave me loose. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But let me tell you, ere you go, | 8 | ········ |
| (I speak plain French, you know,) | 6 | ······ |
| My master is my only foe.' | 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.