The Old Lion
Whoever, to his honor's cost,His pristine dignity has lost,Is the fool's jest and coward's scorn,When once deserted and forlorn.With years enfeebled and decay'd,A Lion gasping hard was laid:Then came, with furious tusk, a boar,To vindicate his wrongs of yore:The bull was next in hostile spite,With goring horn his foe to smite:At length the ass himself, secureThat now impunity was sure,His blow too insolently deals,And kicks his forehead with his heels.Then thus the Lion, as he died:"'Twas hard to bear the brave," he cried;"But to be trampled on by theeIs Nature's last indignity;And thou, O despicable thing,Giv'st death at least a double sting."
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- goring n.
- A piece of canvas cut obliquely to widen a sail at the foot.
- impunity n.
- Exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss. [L. impunitas, fr. impunis without punishment; pref. im- not + poena punishment: cf. F. impunité. See Pain.]
- insolently adv.
- In an insolent manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old 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 Old Lion, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-old-lion.html, id L21253.
Form and metre
The Old Lion is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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--II costA · lostA · scornB · forlornB · decay'dC · laidC · boarD · yoreD · spiteE · smiteE · secureF · sureF · dealsG · heelsG · diedH · criedH · thee · indignity · thingI · stingI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Whoever, to his honor's cost, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| His pristine dignity has lost, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Is the fool's jest and coward's scorn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When once deserted and forlorn. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| With years enfeebled and decay'd, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| A Lion gasping hard was laid: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Then came, with furious tusk, a boar, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To vindicate his wrongs of yore: | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The bull was next in hostile spite, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With goring horn his foe to smite: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At length the ass himself, secure | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| That now impunity was sure, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| His blow too insolently deals, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| And kicks his forehead with his heels. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then thus the Lion, as he died: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "'Twas hard to bear the brave," he cried; | 8 | ········ |
| "But to be trampled on by thee | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is Nature's last indignity; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| And thou, O despicable thing, | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| Giv'st death at least a double sting." | 8 | ·····/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
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.
- With flashing tusks)--Ver. 5. "Fulmineus," "lightning-like," is an epithet given by Ovid and Statius also, to the tusks of the wild boar; probably by reason of their sharpness and the impetuosity of the blow inflicted thereby. Scheffer suggests that they were so called from their white appearance among the black hair of the boar's head.
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.