The Fox and the Grapes
An hungry Fox with fierce attackSprang on a Vine, but tumbled back,Nor could attain the point in view,So near the sky the bunches grew.As he went off, "They're scurvy stuff,"Says he, "and not half ripe enough--And I've more rev'rence for my tripesThan to torment them with the gripes."For those this tale is very patWho lessen what they can't come at.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fox and the Grapes 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 Grapes, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-fox-and-the-grapes.html, id L21294.
Form and metre
The Fox and the Grapes is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: 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 AABBCC--DD attackA · backA · viewB · grewB · stuffC · enoughC · tripes · gripes · patD · atD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An hungry Fox with fierce attack | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Sprang on a Vine, but tumbled back, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor could attain the point in view, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| So near the sky the bunches grew. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As he went off, "They're scurvy stuff," | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Says he, "and not half ripe enough-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And I've more rev'rence for my tripes | 8 | ········ |
| Than to torment them with the gripes." | 8 | ··/····· |
| For those this tale is very pat | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who lessen what they can't come at. | 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.