The Fox and the Crow
His folly in repentance ends,Who, to a flatt'ring knave attends.A Crow, her hunger to appease,Had from a window stolen some cheese,And sitting on a lofty pineIn state, was just about to dine.This, when a Fox observed below,He thus harangued the foolish Crow:"Lady, how beauteous to the viewThose glossy plumes of sable hue!Thy features how divinely fair!With what a shape, and what an air!Could you but frame your voice to sing,You'd have no rival on the wing."But she, now willing to displayHer talents in the vocal way,Let go the cheese of luscious taste,Which Renard seized with greedy haste.The grudging dupe now sees at lastThat for her folly she must fast.
Words in this poem
- knave n.
- A boy; especially, a boy servant. Wyclif. [OE., boy, servant, knave, AS. cnafa boy, youth; cf. AS. cnapa boy, youth, D. kna, G. knabe boy, knappe esquire, Icel. knapi, Sw. knape esquire, knäfvel knave.]
- 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]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
- luscious a.
- Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich. [Prob. for lustious, fr. lusty, or perh. a corruption of luxurious. Cf. Lush, Lusty.]
- renard n.
- A fox; -- so called in fables or familiar tales, and in poetry. [F. renard the fox, the name of the fox in a celebrated epic poem, and of German origin, G. Reinhard, OHG. Reginhard, properly, strong in counsel; regin counsel ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fox and the Crow 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 Fox and the Crow, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-fox-and-the-crow.html, id L21246.
Form and metre
The Fox and the Crow is 20 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ endsA · attendsA · appeaseB · cheeseB · pineC · dineC · belowD · crowD · viewE · hueE · fairF · airF · singG · wingG · displayH · wayH · tasteI · hasteI · lastJ · fastJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His folly in repentance ends, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Who, to a flatt'ring knave attends. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A Crow, her hunger to appease, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Had from a window stolen some cheese, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| And sitting on a lofty pine | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In state, was just about to dine. | 8 | ········ |
| This, when a Fox observed below, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| He thus harangued the foolish Crow: | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| "Lady, how beauteous to the view | 9 | /˘·/˘˘··· |
| Those glossy plumes of sable hue! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy features how divinely fair! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| With what a shape, and what an air! | 8 | ········ |
| Could you but frame your voice to sing, | 8 | ········ |
| You'd have no rival on the wing." | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But she, now willing to display | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Her talents in the vocal way, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Let go the cheese of luscious taste, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which Renard seized with greedy haste. | 8 | ·˘/··/˘· |
| The grudging dupe now sees at last | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That for her folly she must fast. | 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.