The Man And The Adder Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBC DEEDFGGFFGHGIIH GGDJDJDDDKKGGDDL GGGMMGD GGNNOOOOOKPPKDDGGQQG GR GGSSGGTUDDVVGGGGGTGT LQL QQGGGGGWWXXDDYYGGGZG FF GTGTTGGA2A2A2| A | |
| - | |
| 'You villain ' cried a man who found | B |
| An adder coil'd upon the ground | B |
| 'To do a very grateful deed | C |
| For all the world I shall proceed ' | - |
| On this the animal perverse | D |
| I mean the snake | E |
| Pray don't mistake | E |
| The human for the worse | D |
| Was caught and bagg'd and worst of all | F |
| His blood was by his captor to be spilt | G |
| Without regard to innocence or guilt | G |
| Howe'er to show the why these words let fall | F |
| His judge and jailor proud and tall | F |
| 'Thou type of all ingratitude | G |
| All charity to hearts like thine | H |
| Is folly certain to be rued | G |
| Die then | I |
| Thou foe of men | I |
| Thy temper and thy teeth malign | H |
| Shall never hurt a hair of mine ' | - |
| The muffled serpent on his side | G |
| The best a serpent could replied | G |
| 'If all this world's ingrates | D |
| Must meet with such a death | J |
| Who from this worst of fates | D |
| Could save his breath | J |
| Upon thyself thy law recoils | D |
| I throw myself upon thy broils | D |
| Thy graceless revelling on spoils | D |
| If thou but homeward cast an eye | K |
| Thy deeds all mine will justify | K |
| But strike my life is in thy hand | G |
| Thy justice all may understand | G |
| Is but thy interest pleasure or caprice | D |
| Pronounce my sentence on such laws as these | D |
| But give me leave to tell thee while I can | L |
| The type of all ingratitude is man ' | - |
| By such a lecture somewhat foil'd | G |
| The other back a step recoil'd | G |
| And finally replied | G |
| 'Thy reasons are abusive | M |
| And wholly inconclusive | M |
| I might the case decide | G |
| Because to me such right belongs | D |
| But let's refer the case of wrongs ' | - |
| The snake agreed they to a cow referr'd it | G |
| Who being called came graciously and heard it | G |
| Then summing up 'What need ' said she | N |
| 'In such a case to call on me | N |
| The adder's right plain truth to bellow | O |
| For years I've nursed this haughty fellow | O |
| Who but for me had long ago | O |
| Been lodging with the shades below | O |
| For him my milk has had to flow | O |
| My calves at tender age to die | K |
| And for this best of wealth | P |
| And often re stablished health | P |
| What pay or even thanks have I | K |
| Here feeble old and worn alas | D |
| I'm left without a bite of grass | D |
| Were I but left it might be weather'd | G |
| But shame to say it I am tether'd | G |
| And now my fate is surely sadder | Q |
| Than if my master were an adder | Q |
| With brains within the latitude | G |
| Of such immense ingratitude | G |
| This gentles is my honest view | R |
| And so I bid you both adieu ' | - |
| The man confounded and astonish'd | G |
| To be so faithfully admonish'd | G |
| Replied 'What fools to listen now | S |
| To this old silly dotard cow | S |
| Let's trust the ox ' 'Let's trust ' replied | G |
| The crawling beast well gratified | G |
| So said so done | T |
| The ox with tardy pace came on | U |
| And ruminating o'er the case | D |
| Declared with very serious face | D |
| That years of his most painful toil | V |
| Had clothed with Ceres' gifts our soil | V |
| Her gifts to men but always sold | G |
| To beasts for higher cost than gold | G |
| And that for this for his reward | G |
| More blows than thanks return'd his lord | G |
| And then when age had chill'd his blood | G |
| And men would quell the wrath of Heaven | T |
| Out must be pour'd the vital flood | G |
| For others' sins all thankless given | T |
| So spake the ox and then the man | L |
| 'Away with such a dull declaimer | Q |
| Instead of judge it is his plan | L |
| To play accuser and defamer ' | - |
| A tree was next the arbitrator | Q |
| And made the wrong of man still greater | Q |
| It served as refuge from the heat | G |
| The showers and storms which madly beat | G |
| It grew our gardens' greatest pride | G |
| Its shadow spreading far and wide | G |
| And bow'd itself with fruit beside | G |
| But yet a mercenary clown | W |
| With cruel iron chopp'd it down | W |
| Behold the recompense for which | X |
| Year after year it did enrich | X |
| With spring's sweet flowers and autumn's fruits | D |
| And summer's shade both men and brutes | D |
| And warm'd the hearth with many a limb | Y |
| Which winter from its top did trim | Y |
| Why could not man have pruned and spared | G |
| And with itself for ages shared | G |
| Much scorning thus to be convinced | G |
| The man resolved his cause to gain | Z |
| Quoth he 'My goodness is evinced | G |
| By hearing this 'tis very plain ' | - |
| Then flung the serpent bag and all | F |
| With fatal force against a wall | F |
| - | |
| So ever is it with the great | G |
| With whom the whim doth always run | T |
| That Heaven all creatures doth create | G |
| For their behoof beneath the sun | T |
| Count they four feet or two or none | T |
| If one should dare the fact dispute | G |
| He's straight set down a stupid brute | G |
| Now grant it so such lords among | A2 |
| What should be done or said or sung | A2 |
| At distance speak or hold your tongue | A2 |
Jean De La Fontaine
(1)
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