The Dog and the Crocodile
Who give bad precepts to the wise,And cautious men with guile advise,Not only lose their toil and time,But slip into sarcastic rhyme.The dogs that are about the Nile,Through terror of the Crocodile,Are therefore said to drink and run.It happen'd on a day, that one,As scamp'ring by the river side,Was by the Crocodile espied:"Sir, at your leisure drink, nor fearThe least design or treach'ry here.""That," says the Dog, "ma'm, would I doWith all my heart, and thank you too,But as you can on dog's flesh dine,You shall not taste a bit of mine."
Words in this poem
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dog and the Crocodile 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 Dog and the Crocodile, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-dog-and-the-crocodile.html, id L21257.
Form and metre
The Dog and the Crocodile is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH wiseA · adviseA · timeB · rhymeB · nileC · crocodileC · runD · oneD · sideE · espiedE · fearF · hereF · doG · tooG · dineH · mineH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who give bad precepts to the wise, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And cautious men with guile advise, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Not only lose their toil and time, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But slip into sarcastic rhyme. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The dogs that are about the Nile, | 8 | ········ |
| Through terror of the Crocodile, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are therefore said to drink and run. | 8 | ········ |
| It happen'd on a day, that one, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As scamp'ring by the river side, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Was by the Crocodile espied: | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| "Sir, at your leisure drink, nor fear | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The least design or treach'ry here." | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| "That," says the Dog, "ma'm, would I do | 8 | ········ |
| With all my heart, and thank you too, | 8 | ········ |
| But as you can on dog's flesh dine, | 8 | ········ |
| You shall not taste a bit of mine." | 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.