Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE PROUD FROG by GAIUS JULIUS PHAEDRUS

First Line: WHEN POOR MEN TO EXPENCES RUN
Last Line: SHE RAGED AND PUFFED, AND BURST IN TWO.
Subject(s): ANIMALS; FABLES; FROGS; PRIDE; SIZE AND SHAPE; ALLEGORIES; SELF-ESTEEM; SELF-RESPECT;

When poor men to expences run,
And ape their betters, they're undone.
An Ox the Frog a grazing viewed,
And envying his magnitude,
She puffs her wrinkled skin, and tries
To vie with his enormous size:
Then asks her young to own at least
That she was bigger than the beast --
They answer, No -- With might and main
She swells and strains, and swells again.
"Now for it, who has got the day?"
The Ox is larger still, they say.
At length, with more and more ado,
She raged and puffed, and burst in two.



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