Esop and the Importunate Fellow
Esop (no other slave at hand)Received himself his lord's commandAn early supper to provide.From house to house he therefore triedTo beg the favor of a light;At length he hit upon the right.But as when first he sallied outHe made his tour quite round about,On his return he took a raceDirectly, cross the market-place:When thus a talkative buffoon,"Esop, what means this light at noon?"He answer'd briefly, as he ran,"Fellow, I'm looking for a man."Now if this jackanapes had weigh'dThe true intent of what was said,He'd found that Esop had no senseOf manhood in impertinence.
Words in this poem
- tour n.
- A going round; a circuit; hence, a journey in a circuit; a prolonged circuitous journey; a comprehensive excursion; as, the tour of Europe; the tour of France or England. [F. tour. See Turn, v. t.]
- jackanapes n.
- A monkey; an ape. [For Jack o' (= of) apes; prop., a man who exhibits apes.]
- impertinence n.
- The condition or quality of being impertnent; absence of pertinence, or of adaptedness; irrelevance; unfitness. [Cf. F. impertinence. See Impertinent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Esop and the Importunate Fellow is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #25512; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Phaedrus, Esop and the Importunate Fellow, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/esop-and-the-importunate-fellow.html, id L21290.
Form and metre
Esop and the Importunate Fellow is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG---- handA · commandA · provideB · triedB · lightC · rightC · outD · aboutD · raceE · placeE · buffoonF · noonF · ranG · manG · weigh'd · said · sense · impertinence
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Esop (no other slave at hand) | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Received himself his lord's command | 8 | ˘/˘/··˘/ |
| An early supper to provide. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| From house to house he therefore tried | 8 | ········ |
| To beg the favor of a light; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| At length he hit upon the right. | 8 | ········ |
| But as when first he sallied out | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He made his tour quite round about, | 8 | ········ |
| On his return he took a race | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Directly, cross the market-place: | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| When thus a talkative buffoon, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| "Esop, what means this light at noon?" | 8 | ········ |
| He answer'd briefly, as he ran, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| "Fellow, I'm looking for a man." | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Now if this jackanapes had weigh'd | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| The true intent of what was said, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| He'd found that Esop had no sense | 8 | ········ |
| Of manhood in impertinence. | 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.