The Frogs and Bulls
Men of low life are in distressWhen great ones enmity profess.There was a Bull-fight in the fen,A Frog cried out in trouble then,"Oh, what perdition on our race!""How," says another, "can the caseBe quite so desp'rate as you've said?For they're contending who is head,And lead a life from us disjoin'd,Of sep'rate station, diverse kind."--"But he, who worsted shall retire,Will come into this lowland mire,And with his hoof dash out our brains,Wherefore their rage to us pertains."
Words in this poem
- perdition n.
- Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. [F., fr. L. perditio, fr. perdere, perditum, to ruin, to lose; per (cf. Skr. para away) + -dere (only in comp.) to put; akin to Gr. do. See Do.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- lowland n.
- Land which is low with respect to the neighboring country; a low or level country; -- opposed to highland. The Lowlands, Belgium and Holland; the Netherlands; also, the southern part of Scotland.
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Frogs and Bulls 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 Frogs and Bulls, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-frogs-and-bulls.html, id L21261.
Form and metre
The Frogs and Bulls is 14 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 85%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG distressA · professA · fenB · thenB · raceC · caseC · saidD · headD · disjoin'dE · kindE · retireF · mireF · brainsG · pertainsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Men of low life are in distress | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When great ones enmity profess. | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| There was a Bull-fight in the fen, | 8 | ········ |
| A Frog cried out in trouble then, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "Oh, what perdition on our race!" | 8 | ··˘/˘·/· |
| "How," says another, "can the case | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Be quite so desp'rate as you've said? | 8 | ········ |
| For they're contending who is head, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And lead a life from us disjoin'd, | 8 | ········ |
| Of sep'rate station, diverse kind."-- | 8 | ···/˘˘/· |
| "But he, who worsted shall retire, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Will come into this lowland mire, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And with his hoof dash out our brains, | 8 | ······/· |
| Wherefore their rage to us pertains." | 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.