The Leader and the Led is a poem of twenty-four lines arranged into twelve stanzas each with two lines; an overall of twelve couplets. A stanza of two lines is called a couplet, remember? I guess you wouldn’t forget that so easily.

Beyond its form, the poem theorizes the necessary embodiments of a leader. The poem begins with the picture of an animal gathering in their quest for one who would be their leader. Some animals stake their claim to the leadership position; lion, hyena, giraffe, zebra, elephant, warthog and rhino all said “it’s their right to lead”. But the colleagues (that they want to rule) only picked out their faults and flaws instead. When they could not see a flawless and perfect leader to pick, the Forest Sage calls their attention to what they need in a leader.