Esop and the Insolent Fellow
Fools from success perdition meet.An idle wretch about the streetAt Esop threw a stone in rage."So much the better," quoth the sage,And gives three farthings for the job;"I've no more money in my fob;But if you'll follow my advice,More shall be levied in a trice."It happen'd that the selfsame hourCame by a man of wealth and pow'r."There, throw your pellet at my lord,And you shall have a sure reward!"The fellow did as he was told;But mark the downfall of the bold;His hopes are baulk'd, and, lo! he gainsA rope and gibbet for his pains.
Words in this poem
- perdition n.
- Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. [F., fr. L. perditio, fr. perdere, perditum, to ruin, to lose; per (cf. Skr. para away) + -dere (only in comp.) to put; akin to Gr. do. See Do.]
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- trice v. t.
- To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away. [OE. trisen; of Scand. or Low German origin; cf. Sw. trissa a sheave, pulley, triss a spritsail brace, Dan. tridse a pulley, tridse to haul by means of a pulley,]
- selfsame a.
- Precisely the same; the very same; identical. [Self, a. + same.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- pellet v.
- To form into small balls.
- downfall n.
- A sudden fall; a body of things falling.
- gibbet n.
- A kind of gallows; an upright post with an arm projecting from the top, on which, formerly, malefactors were hanged in chains, and their bodies allowed to remain asa warning. [OE. gibet, F. gibet, in OF. also club, fr. LL. gibetum;; cf. OF. gibe sort of sickle or hook, It. giubbetto gibbet, and giubbetta, dim. of giubba mane, also, an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Esop and the Insolent 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 Insolent Fellow, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/esop-and-the-insolent-fellow.html, id L21277.
Form and metre
Esop and the Insolent Fellow is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AABB--CC--DDEEFF meetA · streetA · rageB · sageB · job · fob · adviceC · triceC · hour · pow'r · lordD · rewardD · toldE · boldE · gainsF · painsF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fools from success perdition meet. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| An idle wretch about the street | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At Esop threw a stone in rage. | 8 | ········ |
| "So much the better," quoth the sage, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And gives three farthings for the job; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "I've no more money in my fob; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But if you'll follow my advice, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| More shall be levied in a trice." | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It happen'd that the selfsame hour | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Came by a man of wealth and pow'r. | 8 | ········ |
| "There, throw your pellet at my lord, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And you shall have a sure reward!" | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The fellow did as he was told; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But mark the downfall of the bold; | 8 | ···/···· |
| His hopes are baulk'd, and, lo! he gains | 8 | ········ |
| A rope and gibbet for his pains. | 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.