The Dog, Treasure, and Vulture
A Dog, while scratching up the ground,'Mongst human bones a treasure found;But as his sacrilege was great,To covet riches was his fate,And punishment of his offence;He therefore never stirr'd from thence,But both in hunger and the cold,With anxious care he watch'd the gold,Till wholly negligent of food,A ling'ring death at length ensued.Upon his corse a Vulture stood,And thus descanted:-- "It is good,O Dog, that there thou liest bereavedWho in the highway wast conceived,And on a scurvy dunghill bred,Hadst royal riches in thy head."
Words in this poem
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- corse n.
- A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- dunghill n.
- A heap of dung.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dog, Treasure, and Vulture 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, Treasure, and Vulture, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-dog-treasure-and-vulture.html, id L21259.
Form and metre
The Dog, Treasure, and Vulture 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 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH groundA · foundA · greatB · fateB · offenceC · thenceC · coldD · goldD · foodE · ensuedE · stoodF · goodF · bereavedG · conceivedG · bredH · headH
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 Dog, while scratching up the ground, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| 'Mongst human bones a treasure found; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But as his sacrilege was great, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| To covet riches was his fate, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And punishment of his offence; | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| He therefore never stirr'd from thence, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But both in hunger and the cold, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With anxious care he watch'd the gold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Till wholly negligent of food, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| A ling'ring death at length ensued. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Upon his corse a Vulture stood, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And thus descanted:-- "It is good, | 8 | ········ |
| O Dog, that there thou liest bereaved | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Who in the highway wast conceived, | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| And on a scurvy dunghill bred, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Hadst royal riches in thy head." | 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.