Book VIII: The Man and the Flea
Impertinent, we tease and weary HeavenWith prayers which would insult mere mortals even.'Twould seem that not a god in all the skiesFrom our affairs must ever turn his eyes,And that the smallest of our raceCould hardly eat, or wash his face,Without, like Greece and Troy for ten years' space,Embroiling all Olympus in the case.
A flea some blockhead's shoulder bit,And then his clothes refused to quit.'O Hercules,' he cried, 'you ought to purgeThis world of this far worse than hydra scourge!O Jupiter, what are your bolts about,They do not put these foes of mine to rout?'
To crush a flea, this fellow's fingers under,The gods must lend the fool their club and thunder!
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book VIII: The Man and the Flea 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 Man and the Flea, in The Fables of La Fontaine (1841), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7241, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/la-fontaine-fables/8-5.html, id L28359.
Form and metre
Book VIII: The Man and the Flea is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 --AABBBB heaven · even · skiesA · eyesA · raceB · faceB · spaceB · caseB
- 2 AABBCC bitA · quitA · purgeB · scourgeB · aboutC · routC
- 3 AA underA · thunderA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Impertinent, we tease and weary Heaven | 11 | ˘/˘˘···/˘/˘ |
| With prayers which would insult mere mortals even. | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| 'Twould seem that not a god in all the skies | 10 | ·········· |
| From our affairs must ever turn his eyes, | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘··· |
| And that the smallest of our race | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Could hardly eat, or wash his face, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Without, like Greece and Troy for ten years' space, | 10 | ·········· |
| Embroiling all Olympus in the case. | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| A flea some blockhead's shoulder bit, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| And then his clothes refused to quit. | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| 'O Hercules,' he cried, 'you ought to purge | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| This world of this far worse than hydra scourge! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O Jupiter, what are your bolts about, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| They do not put these foes of mine to rout?' | 10 | ·········· |
| To crush a flea, this fellow's fingers under, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| The gods must lend the fool their club and thunder! | 11 | ·········/˘ |
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.