The Frogs and Sun
When Esop saw, with inward grief,The nuptials of a neighb'ring thief,He thus his narrative begun:Of old 'twas rumor'd that the SunWould take a wife: with hideous criesThe quer'lous Frogs alarm'd the skies.Moved at their murmurs, Jove inquiredWhat was the thing that they desired?When thus a tenant of the lake,In terror, for his brethren spake:"Ev'n now one Sun too much is found,And dries up all the pools around,Till we thy creatures perish here;But oh, how dreadfully severe,Should he at length be made a sire,And propagate a race of fire!"
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- dreadfully adv.
- In a dreadful manner; terribly.
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Frogs and Sun 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 Sun, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-frogs-and-sun.html, id L21239.
Form and metre
The Frogs and Sun 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 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH griefA · thiefA · begunB · sunB · criesC · skiesC · inquiredD · desiredD · lakeE · spakeE · foundF · aroundF · hereG · severeG · sireH · fireH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Esop saw, with inward grief, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The nuptials of a neighb'ring thief, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He thus his narrative begun: | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Of old 'twas rumor'd that the Sun | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Would take a wife: with hideous cries | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The quer'lous Frogs alarm'd the skies. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Moved at their murmurs, Jove inquired | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| What was the thing that they desired? | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| When thus a tenant of the lake, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In terror, for his brethren spake: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| "Ev'n now one Sun too much is found, | 8 | ········ |
| And dries up all the pools around, | 8 | ········ |
| Till we thy creatures perish here; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But oh, how dreadfully severe, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Should he at length be made a sire, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And propagate a race of fire!" | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
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.