The Fables of Phaedrus: Book I: Prologue
What from the founder Esop fell,In neat familiar verse I tell:Twofold's the genius of the page,To make you smile and make you sage.But if the critics we displease,By wrangling brutes and talking trees,Let them remember, ere they blame,We're working neither sin nor shame;'Tis but a play to form the youthBy fiction, in the cause of truth.
Words in this poem
- displease v. i.
- To give displeasure or offense.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fables of Phaedrus: Book I: Prologue 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 Fables of Phaedrus: Book I: Prologue, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-fables-of-phaedrus-book-i-prologue.html, id L21233.
Form and metre
The Fables of Phaedrus: Book I: Prologue 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 90%).
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 fellA · tellA · pageB · sageB · displeaseC · treesC · blameD · shameD · youthE · truthE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What from the founder Esop fell, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In neat familiar verse I tell: | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Twofold's the genius of the page, | 8 | //·/˘··· |
| To make you smile and make you sage. | 8 | ········ |
| But if the critics we displease, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| By wrangling brutes and talking trees, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Let them remember, ere they blame, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| We're working neither sin nor shame; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| 'Tis but a play to form the youth | 8 | ········ |
| By fiction, in the cause of truth. | 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.