The Viper and the File
He that a greater biter bites,His folly on himself requites,As we shall manifest forthwith.--There was a hovel of a smith,Where a poor Viper chanced to steal,And being greedy of a meal,When she had seized upon a file,Was answer'd in this rugged style:"Why do you think, O stupid snake!On me your usual meal to make,Who've sharper teeth than thine by far,And can corrode an iron bar?"
Words in this poem
- biter n.
- One who, or that which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- forthwith adv.
- Immediately; without delay; directly.
- hovel n.
- An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather. Brande & C. [OE. hovel, hovil, prob. a dim. fr. AS. hof house; akin to D. & G. hof court, yard, Icel. hof temple; cf. Prov. E. hove to take shelter, heuf shelter, home.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Viper and the File 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 Viper and the File, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-viper-and-the-file.html, id L21299.
Form and metre
The Viper and the File is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 83% 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 --AABBCCDDEE bites · requites · forthwithA · smithA · stealB · mealB · fileC · styleC · snakeD · makeD · farE · barE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He that a greater biter bites, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| His folly on himself requites, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| As we shall manifest forthwith.-- | 8 | ···/˘·// |
| There was a hovel of a smith, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where a poor Viper chanced to steal, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And being greedy of a meal, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| When she had seized upon a file, | 8 | ········ |
| Was answer'd in this rugged style: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| "Why do you think, O stupid snake! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On me your usual meal to make, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who've sharper teeth than thine by far, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And can corrode an iron bar?" | 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.