The Sapient Ass
In all the changes of a state,The poor are the most fortunate,Who, save the name of him they callTheir king, can find no odds at all.The truth of this you now may read--A fearful old man in a mead,While leading of his Ass about,Was startled at the sudden shoutOf enemies approaching nigh.He then advised the Ass to fly,"Lest we be taken in the place:"But loth at all to mend his pace,"Pray, will the conqueror," quoth Jack,"With double panniers load my back?""No," says the man. "If that's the thing,"Cries he, "I care not who is king."
Words in this poem
- odds n.
- Difference in favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. [See Odd, a.]
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sapient Ass 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 Sapient Ass, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-sapient-ass.html, id L21248.
Form and metre
The Sapient Ass 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 86%).
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 stateA · fortunateA · callB · allB · readC · meadC · aboutD · shoutD · nighE · flyE · placeF · paceF · jackG · backG · thingH · kingH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In all the changes of a state, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The poor are the most fortunate, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Who, save the name of him they call | 8 | ········ |
| Their king, can find no odds at all. | 8 | ········ |
| The truth of this you now may read-- | 8 | ········ |
| A fearful old man in a mead, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| While leading of his Ass about, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Was startled at the sudden shout | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of enemies approaching nigh. | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/˘· |
| He then advised the Ass to fly, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| "Lest we be taken in the place:" | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But loth at all to mend his pace, | 8 | ········ |
| "Pray, will the conqueror," quoth Jack, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| "With double panniers load my back?" | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| "No," says the man. "If that's the thing," | 8 | ········ |
| Cries he, "I care not who is king." | 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.