Book VIII: The Bear and the Amateur Gardener
A certain mountain bear, unlick'd and rude,By fate confined within a lonely wood,A new Bellerophon, whose life,Knew neither comrade, friend, nor wife,--Became insane; for reason, as we term it,Dwells never long with any hermit.'Tis good to mix in good society,Obeying rules of due propriety;And better yet to be alone;But both are ills when overdone.No animal had business whereAll grimly dwelt our hermit bear;Hence, bearish as he was, he grewHeart-sick, and long'd for something new.While he to sadness was addicted,An aged man, not far from there,Was by the same disease afflicted.A garden was his favourite care,--Sweet Flora's priesthood, light and fair,And eke Pomona's--ripe and redThe presents that her fingers shed.These two employments, true, are sweetWhen made so by some friend discreet.The gardens, gaily as they look,Talk not, (except in this my book;)So, tiring of the deaf and dumb,Our man one morning left his homeSome company to seek,That had the power to speak.--The bear, with thoughts the same,Down from his mountain came;And in a solitary place,They met each other, face to face.It would have made the boldest tremble;What did our man? To play the GasconThe safest seem'd. He put the mask on,His fear contriving to dissemble.The bear, unused to compliment,Growl'd bluntly, but with good intent,'Come home with me.' The man replied:'Sir Bear, my lodgings, nearer by,In yonder garden you may spy,Where, if you'll honour me the while,We'll break our fast in rural style.I've fruits and milk,--unworthy fare,It may be, for a wealthy bear;But then I offer what I have.'The bear accepts, with visage grave,But not unpleased; and on their way,They grow familiar, friendly, gay.Arrived, you see them, side by side,As if their friendship had been tried.To a companion so absurd,Blank solitude were well preferr'd,Yet, as the bear scarce spoke a word,The man was left quite at his leisureTo trim his garden at his pleasure.Sir Bruin hunted--always broughtHis friend whatever game he caught;But chiefly aim'd at driving flies--Those hold and shameless parasites,That vex us with their ceaseless bites--From off our gardener's face and eyes.One day, while, stretch'd upon the groundThe old man lay, in sleep profound,A fly that buzz'd around his nose,--And bit it sometimes, I suppose,--Put Bruin sadly to his trumps.At last, determined, up he jumps;'I'll stop thy noisy buzzing now,'Says he; 'I know precisely how.'No sooner said than done.He seized a paving-stone;And by his modus operandiDid both the fly and man die.
A foolish friend may cause more woeThan could, indeed, the wisest foe.
Words in this poem 19
- bellerophon n.
- A genus of fossil univalve shells, believed to belong to the Heteropoda, peculiar to the Paleozoic age.
- propriety n.
- Individual right to hold property; ownership by personal title; property. [F. propriété, L. proprietas, fr. proprius one's own, proper. See Property, Proper.]
- grimly a.
- Grim; hideous; stern.
- bearish a.
- Partaking of the qualities of a bear; resembling a bear in temper or manners. Harris.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- discreet a.
- Possessed of discernment, especially in avoiding error or evil, and in the adaptation of means to ends; prudent; sagacious; judicious; not rash or heedless; cautious. [F. discret, L. discretus separated (whence the meaning reserved, prudent), p. p. of discernere. See Discern, and cf. Discrete.]
- gaily adv.
- Merrily; showily. See gaily. [From Gay.]
- gascon a.
- Of or pertaining to Gascony, in France, or to the Gascons; also, braggart; swaggering. [F.]
- dissemble v. t.
- To hide under a false semblance or seeming; to feign (something) not to be what it really is; to put an untrue appearance upon; to disguise; to mask. [OF. dissembler to be dissimilar; pref. dis- (L. dis-) + F. sembler to seem, L. simulare to simulate; cf. L. dissimulare to dissemble. See Simulate, and cf. Diss]
- bluntly adv.
- In a blunt manner; coarsely; plainly; abruptly; without delicacy, or the usual forms of civility.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- bruin n.
- A bear; -- so called in popular tales and fables. [D. bruin brown. In the epic poem of "Reynard the Fox" the bear is so called from his color. See Brown, a.]
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- modus n.
- The arrangement of, or mode of expressing, the terms of a contract or conveyance. [L. See Mode.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book VIII: The Bear and the Amateur Gardener 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 VIII: The Bear and the Amateur Gardener, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/8-10.html, id L28364.
Form and metre
Book VIII: The Bear and the Amateur Gardener is 77 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 --AABBCC--DDEEFDFDDFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMNNMOO-PPQQRRSSTTUUVVVWW--XYYXZZaabbcc---- rude · wood · lifeA · wifeA · itB · hermitB · societyC · proprietyC · alone · overdone · whereD · bearD · grewE · newE · addictedF · thereD · afflictedF · careD · fairD · redF · shedF · sweetG · discreetG · lookH · bookH · dumbI · homeI · seekJ · speakJ · sameK · cameK · placeL · faceL · trembleM · gasconN · onN · dissembleM · complimentO · intentO · replied · byP · spyP · whileQ · styleQ · fareR · bearR · haveS · graveS · wayT · gayT · sideU · triedU · absurdV · preferr'dV · wordV · leisureW · pleasureW · brought · caught · fliesX · parasitesY · bitesY · eyesX · groundZ · profoundZ · nosea · supposea · trumpsb · jumpsb · nowc · howc · done · stone · operandi · die
- 2 AA woeA · foeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A certain mountain bear, unlick'd and rude, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| By fate confined within a lonely wood, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| A new Bellerophon, whose life, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Knew neither comrade, friend, nor wife,-- | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Became insane; for reason, as we term it, | 11 | ˘/˘/·/˘···· |
| Dwells never long with any hermit. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| 'Tis good to mix in good society, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Obeying rules of due propriety; | 9 | ˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| And better yet to be alone; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| But both are ills when overdone. | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| No animal had business where | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| All grimly dwelt our hermit bear; | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| Hence, bearish as he was, he grew | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Heart-sick, and long'd for something new. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While he to sadness was addicted, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| An aged man, not far from there, | 7 | ······· |
| Was by the same disease afflicted. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| A garden was his favourite care,-- | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Sweet Flora's priesthood, light and fair, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And eke Pomona's--ripe and red | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| The presents that her fingers shed. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| These two employments, true, are sweet | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| When made so by some friend discreet. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The gardens, gaily as they look, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Talk not, (except in this my book;) | 8 | ········ |
| So, tiring of the deaf and dumb, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Our man one morning left his home | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| Some company to seek, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| That had the power to speak.-- | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| The bear, with thoughts the same, | 6 | ······ |
| Down from his mountain came; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And in a solitary place, | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| They met each other, face to face. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It would have made the boldest tremble; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| What did our man? To play the Gascon | 9 | ··/····/˘ |
| The safest seem'd. He put the mask on, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| His fear contriving to dissemble. | 9 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| The bear, unused to compliment, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Growl'd bluntly, but with good intent, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| 'Come home with me.' The man replied: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| 'Sir Bear, my lodgings, nearer by, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In yonder garden you may spy, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where, if you'll honour me the while, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We'll break our fast in rural style. | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| I've fruits and milk,--unworthy fare, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| It may be, for a wealthy bear; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But then I offer what I have.' | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The bear accepts, with visage grave, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| But not unpleased; and on their way, | 8 | ········ |
| They grow familiar, friendly, gay. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Arrived, you see them, side by side, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| As if their friendship had been tried. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To a companion so absurd, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Blank solitude were well preferr'd, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Yet, as the bear scarce spoke a word, | 8 | ········ |
| The man was left quite at his leisure | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| To trim his garden at his pleasure. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Sir Bruin hunted--always brought | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| His friend whatever game he caught; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But chiefly aim'd at driving flies-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Those hold and shameless parasites, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That vex us with their ceaseless bites-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From off our gardener's face and eyes. | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| One day, while, stretch'd upon the ground | 8 | ········ |
| The old man lay, in sleep profound, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A fly that buzz'd around his nose,-- | 8 | ········ |
| And bit it sometimes, I suppose,-- | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| Put Bruin sadly to his trumps. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| At last, determined, up he jumps; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| 'I'll stop thy noisy buzzing now,' | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Says he; 'I know precisely how.' | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| No sooner said than done. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He seized a paving-stone; | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| And by his modus operandi | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Did both the fly and man die. | 7 | ······· |
| A foolish friend may cause more woe | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Than could, indeed, the wisest 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.