Analysis of Against The Hard To Suit.
Jean de La Fontaine 1621 (Château-Thierry) – 1695 (Paris)
Were I a pet of fair Calliope,
I would devote the gifts conferr'd on me
To dress in verse old Aesop's lies divine;
For verse, and they, and truth, do well combine;
But, not a favourite on the Muses' hill,
I dare not arrogate the magic skill,
To ornament these charming stories.
A bard might brighten up their glories,
No doubt. I try, - what one more wise must do.
Thus much I have accomplish'd hitherto: -
By help of my translation,
The beasts hold conversation,
In French, as ne'er they did before.
Indeed, to claim a little more,
The plants and trees,with smiling features,
Are turn'd by me to talking creatures.
Who says, that this is not enchanting?
'Ah,' says the critics, 'hear what vaunting!
From one whose work, all told, no more is
Than half-a-dozen baby stories.'
Would you a theme more credible, my censors,
In graver tone, and style which now and then soars?
Then list! For ten long years the men of Troy,
By means that only heroes can employ,
Had held the allied hosts of Greece at bay, -
Their minings, batterings, stormings day by day,
Their hundred battles on the crimson plain,
Their blood of thousand heroes, all in vain, -
When, by Minerva's art, a horse of wood,
Of lofty size before their city stood,
Whose flanks immense the sage Ulysses hold,
Brave Diomed, and Ajax fierce and bold,
Whom, with their myrmidons, the huge machine
Would bear within the fated town unseen,
To wreak upon its very gods their rage -
Unheard-of stratagem, in any age.
Which well its crafty authors did repay....
'Enough, enough,' our critic folks will say;
'Your period excites alarm,
Lest you should do your lungs some harm;
And then your monstrous wooden horse,
With squadrons in it at their ease,
Is even harder to endorse
Than Renard cheating Raven of his cheese.
And, more than that, it fits you ill
To wield the old heroic quill.'
Well, then, a humbler tone, if such your will is: -
Long sigh'd and pined the jealous Amaryllis
For her Alcippus, in the sad belief,
None, save her sheep and dog, would know her grief.
Thyrsis, who knows, among the willows slips,
And hears the gentle shepherdess's lips
Beseech the kind and gentle zephyr
To bear these accents to her lover....
'Stop!' says my censor:
'To laws of rhyme quite irreducible,
That couplet needs again the crucible;
Poetic men, sir,
Must nicely shun the shocks
Of rhymes unorthodox.'
A curse on critics! hold your tongue!
Know I not how to end my song?
Of time and strength what greater waste
Than my attempt to suit your taste?
Some men, more nice than wise,
There's nought that satisfies.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJDHXKKLLMMNNOOPPQQLLRRSDSDCCJXTTUUVVVCXVWWXXXX YY |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111010 1101010111 110111101 1101011110 110110101 111100101 110011010 011101110 1111111111 111101011 1111010 011010 01111101 01110101 01011010 111111010 111111010 11010111 111111111 110101010 11011100110 01010111011 1111110111 1111010101 1100111111 1111111 1101010101 1111010101 11110111 1101011101 1101010101 1101101 1111000101 1101010101 1101110111 0111000101 1111010101 01011010111 11000101 11111111 01110101 11001111 11010101 1011010111 01111111 11010101 110100111111 1101010010 10100101 1101011101 11101011 0101011 010101010 111101010 11110 111111 111010100 01011 110101 11010 01110111 11111111 11011101 11011111 111111 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,496 |
Words | 465 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 64, 2 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 983 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 228 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:20 min read
- 13 Views
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"Against The Hard To Suit." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55771/against-the-hard-to-suit.>.
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