The Proud Frog
When poor men to expenses run,And ape their betters, they're undone.An Ox the Frog a-grazing view'd,And envying his magnitude,She puffs her wrinkled skin, and triesTo vie with his enormous size:Then asks her young to own at leastThat she was bigger than the beast.They answer, No. With might and mainShe swells and strains, and swells again."Now for it, who has got the day?"The Ox is larger still, they say.At length, with more and more ado,She raged and puffed, and burst in two.
Words in this poem
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Proud Frog 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 Proud Frog, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-proud-frog.html, id L21256.
Form and metre
The Proud Frog 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 92%).
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 runA · undoneA · view'dB · magnitudeB · triesC · sizeC · leastD · beastD · mainE · againE · dayF · sayF · adoG · twoG
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 poor men to expenses run, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And ape their betters, they're undone. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| An Ox the Frog a-grazing view'd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And envying his magnitude, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| She puffs her wrinkled skin, and tries | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To vie with his enormous size: | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Then asks her young to own at least | 8 | ········ |
| That she was bigger than the beast. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They answer, No. With might and main | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| She swells and strains, and swells again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| "Now for it, who has got the day?" | 8 | ········ |
| The Ox is larger still, they say. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| At length, with more and more ado, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| She raged and puffed, and burst in two. | 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.