Fabula Canis Et Umbrae
ORE cibum portans catulus dum spectat in undis,Apparet liquido praedae melioris imago:Dum speciosa diu damna admiratur, et altèAd latices inhiat, cadit imo vortice praecepsOre cibus, nee non simulacrum corripit una.Occupat ille avidus deceptis faucibus umbram;Illudit species, ac dentibus aëra mordet.
Words in this poem
- simulacrum n.
- A likeness; a semblance; a mock appearance; a sham; -- now usually in a derogatory sense. [L. See Simulate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fabula Canis Et Umbrae is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #14353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jonathan Swift, Fabula Canis Et Umbrae, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/fabula-canis-et-umbrae.html, id L24517.
Form and metre
Fabula Canis Et Umbrae is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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.
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 trochaic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ORE cibum portans catulus dum spectat in undis, | 14 | ·············· |
| Apparet liquido praedae melioris imago: | 13 | ··········˘/˘ |
| Dum speciosa diu damna admiratur, et altè | 13 | ············· |
| Ad latices inhiat, cadit imo vortice praeceps | 14 | ········/˘···· |
| Ore cibus, nee non simulacrum corripit una. | 14 | ············/˘ |
| Occupat ille avidus deceptis faucibus umbram; | 15 | ··············· |
| Illudit species, ac dentibus aëra mordet. | 14 | ···/˘//···/˘·· |
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.