Progymnasmata for the High School Student – Year One, Week Eight

More 19th Century Fables & Beyond

We now turn to the English-speaking world.

Day 1 – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson (d. 1882) was an American thinker and writer.  Retell this story in prose from the perspective of the mountain.

Emerson’s The Mountain and the Squirrel (1846)

Day 2  – Christina Rossetti

Rossetti (d. 1894) was an English writer (and sister of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti).  Familiarize yourself with the fable of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, from Aesop to Marie de France to Rossetti.  What is the moral of Rossetti’s poem?  Is there a moral?  Has she shifted your perspective on the country mouse?  Can you rewrite Aesop’s The Dog in the Manger in a similar way to shift the perspective onto the dog?

Aesop’s Town Mouse and Country Mouse

Marie de France’s The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Rossetti’s City Mouse and Country Mouse

Aesop’s The Dog in the Manger

Day 3 – Robert Louis Stevenson

You have probably read from Stevenson’s (d. 1894) A Child’s Garden of Verse.  He also wrote fables.  Read Stevenson’s The Carthorses and the Saddlehorse.  First, who do you think would be of higher status among horses – a carthorse or a saddlehorse?  In the fable, how is the saddlehorse judging the status of the carthorses?  And how are the carthorses judging the status of the saddlehorse? What is the moral of this fable?  The Oxford English Dictionary defines irony as“language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect” or  “an outcome cruelly, humorously, or strangely at odds with assumptions or expectations.“  How does Stevenson deploy irony to impart the moral of his fable?

Stevenson’s The Carthorses and the Saddlehorse

* Note that kanaka is a term used to identify Pacific Islanders, here derogatorily.

Day 4 – Fables Today

What has become of the fable in the present day?  Have you read fables, other than those by Aesop, before this course?  Is there still a vibrant tradition of fable-telling?  How has it been adapted to the present day?  Think of a modern-day fable that you know.  Introduce the fable, and retell it in your own words.  Analyze how it continues the tradition of fables and how it innovates.