The Dog in the River
The churl that wants another's fareDeserves at least to lose his share.As through the stream a Dog convey'dA piece of meat, he spied his shadeIn the clear mirror of the flood,And thinking it was flesh and blood,Snapp'd to deprive him of the treat:--But mark the glutton's self-defeat,Miss'd both another's and his own,Both shade and substance, beef and bone.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dog in the River 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 in the River, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-dog-in-the-river.html, id L21237.
Form and metre
The Dog in the River is 10 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 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 AABBCCDDEE fareA · shareA · convey'dB · shadeB · floodC · bloodC · treatD · defeatD · ownE · boneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The churl that wants another's fare | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Deserves at least to lose his share. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| As through the stream a Dog convey'd | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A piece of meat, he spied his shade | 8 | ········ |
| In the clear mirror of the flood, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thinking it was flesh and blood, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Snapp'd to deprive him of the treat:-- | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But mark the glutton's self-defeat, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Miss'd both another's and his own, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Both shade and substance, beef and bone. | 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.