The Bull and the Calf
A Bull was struggling to secureHis passage at a narrow door,And scarce could reach the rack of hay,His horns so much were in his way.A Calf officious, fain would showHow he might twist himself and go."Hold thou thy prate; all this," says he,"Ere thou wert calved was known to me."He, that a wiser man by halfWould teach, may think himself this Calf.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bull and the Calf 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, The Bull and the Calf, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-bull-and-the-calf.html, id L21324.
Form and metre
The Bull and the Calf is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% 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 --AABBCCDD secure · door · hayA · wayA · showB · goB · heC · meC · halfD · calfD
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 Bull was struggling to secure | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| His passage at a narrow door, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And scarce could reach the rack of hay, | 8 | ········ |
| His horns so much were in his way. | 8 | ········ |
| A Calf officious, fain would show | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| How he might twist himself and go. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| "Hold thou thy prate; all this," says he, | 8 | ········ |
| "Ere thou wert calved was known to me." | 8 | ········ |
| He, that a wiser man by half | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Would teach, may think himself this Calf. | 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.