The Hungry Dogs
A stupid plan that fools project,Not only will not take effect,But proves destructive in the endTo those that bungle and pretend.Some hungry Dogs beheld an hideDeep sunk beneath the crystal tide,Which, that they might extract for food,They strove to drink up all the flood;But bursten in the desp'rate deed,They perish'd, ere they could succeed.
Words in this poem
- bungle v. i.
- To act or work in a clumsy, awkward manner. [Prob. a diminutive from, akin to bang; cf. Prov. G. bungen to beat, bang, OSw. bunga. See Bang.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hungry Dogs 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 Hungry Dogs, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-hungry-dogs.html, id L21252.
Form and metre
The Hungry Dogs 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 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 AABBCC--DD projectA · effectA · endB · pretendB · hideC · tideC · food · flood · deedD · succeedD
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 stupid plan that fools project, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Not only will not take effect, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| But proves destructive in the end | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| To those that bungle and pretend. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Some hungry Dogs beheld an hide | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Deep sunk beneath the crystal tide, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Which, that they might extract for food, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| They strove to drink up all the flood; | 8 | ········ |
| But bursten in the desp'rate deed, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They perish'd, ere they could succeed. | 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.