The Heifer, Goat, Sheep, and Lion
A partnership with men in powerWe cannot build upon an hour.This Fable proves the fact too true:An Heifer, Goat, and harmless Ewe,Were with the Lion as allies,To raise in desert woods supplies.There, when they jointly had the luckTo take a most enormous buck,The Lion first the parts disposed,And then his royal will disclosed."The first, as Lion hight, I crave;The next you yield to me, as brave;The third is my peculiar due,As being stronger far than you;The fourth you likewise will renounce,For him that touches, I shall trounce."Thus rank unrighteousness and forceSeized all the prey without remorse.
Words in this poem
- hight v. t.
- To be called or named. [OE. heiten, highten, haten, hoten; also hight, hatte, hette, is called, was called, AS. hatan to call, name, be called, to command, promise; also hatte is calle]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- 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,]
- trounce v. t.
- To punish or beat severely; to whip smartly; to flog; to castigate. [F. tronce, tronche, a stump, piece of wood. See Truncheon.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Heifer, Goat, Sheep, and Lion 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 Heifer, Goat, Sheep, and Lion, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-heifer-goat-sheep-and-lion.html, id L21238.
Form and metre
The Heifer, Goat, Sheep, and Lion is 18 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 95%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFBBGGHH powerA · hourA · trueB · eweB · alliesC · suppliesC · luckD · buckD · disposedE · disclosedE · craveF · braveF · dueB · youB · renounceG · trounceG · forceH · remorseH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A partnership with men in power | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| We cannot build upon an hour. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| This Fable proves the fact too true: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An Heifer, Goat, and harmless Ewe, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were with the Lion as allies, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| To raise in desert woods supplies. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| There, when they jointly had the luck | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To take a most enormous buck, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The Lion first the parts disposed, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And then his royal will disclosed. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| "The first, as Lion hight, I crave; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The next you yield to me, as brave; | 8 | ········ |
| The third is my peculiar due, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| As being stronger far than you; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The fourth you likewise will renounce, | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| For him that touches, I shall trounce." | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thus rank unrighteousness and force | 8 | ········ |
| Seized all the prey without remorse. | 8 | ······˘/ |
Notes from the edition 2
Henry T. Riley's notes to his prose translation of the Fables of Phaedrus (George Bell & Sons, 1887; Project Gutenberg #25512), aligned fable-by-fable, per book, against Christopher Smart's verse translation of the same fables, which is what the site carries.
- And a Sheep)--Ver. 3. Lessing also censures this Fable on the ground of the partnership being contrary to nature; neither the cow, the goat, nor the sheep feed on flesh.
- I am the strongest)--Ver. 9. Some critics profess to see no difference between "sum fortis" in the eighth line, and "plus valeo" here; but the former expression appears to refer to his courage, and the latter to his strength. However, the second and third reasons are nothing but reiterations of the first one, under another form. Davidson remarks on this passage: "I am not certain that the Poet meant any distinction; nay, there is, perhaps, a propriety in supposing that he industriously makes the Lion plead twice upon the same title, to represent more strongly by what unjust claims men in power often invade the property of another."
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.