The Two Bags
Great Jove, in his paternal care,Has giv'n a man two Bags to bear;That which his own default containsBehind his back unseen remains;But that which others' vice attestsSwags full in view before our breasts.Hence we're inevitably blind,Relating to the Bag behind;But when our neighbours misdemean,Our censures are exceeding keen.
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- inevitably adv.
- Without possibility of escape or evasion; unavoidably; certainly.
- misdemean v. t.
- To behave ill; -- with a reflexive pronoun; as, to misdemean one's self.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Two Bags 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 Two Bags, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-two-bags.html, id L21301.
Form and metre
The Two Bags is 10 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 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 AABBCCDDEE careA · bearA · containsB · remainsB · attestsC · breastsC · blindD · behindD · misdemeanE · keenE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Great Jove, in his paternal care, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Has giv'n a man two Bags to bear; | 8 | ········ |
| That which his own default contains | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Behind his back unseen remains; | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| But that which others' vice attests | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Swags full in view before our breasts. | 8 | ······/· |
| Hence we're inevitably blind, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| Relating to the Bag behind; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| But when our neighbours misdemean, | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| Our censures are exceeding keen. | 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.