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Death Of A Toad Poem Analysis

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The poem “Death of a Toad” has many elements that reveal the speaker’s response to the toad.
In the beginning, the poem explains the accident in which the toads leg got caught by the power mower. The audience knows the author was in war, so the”power mower” could be a comb or tank used in the war. The author also uses alliteration when he says “chewed” and “clipped”. The audience can tell the author uses these harsh beginnings to describe the incident. It gives the audience imagery of the hard accident. Then after, he uses “shade”, “cineraria”, and “sanctuaried”. These words have a soft beginning. The author does this to show the change to peaceful and soft. So the audience can see the shift change to harsh then to soft. The horrible crash …show more content…

He uses the metaphor “as still as if he would return to stone”. The audience knows the toad went to go lie down to die. Knowing the author was in war, the toad could be a soldier who got injured. In the third line of the second stanza the word “gutter” is used. The audience can predict the “gutter” could be a trench used in the war. So the soldier went to the trench to lie down and die. There is also another shift when the author says “and soundlessly attending, dies…”. In the last stanza, the audience can infer that the author is at peace with the death. He says “misted and ebullient seas and cooling shores, towards Amphibia’s empiries.” The audience can feel the relaxation. Also, the author symbolizes heaven by using “amphibian empiries”. That shows the author is relaxed about the death and the soldier, or toad, is in a better place. The audience can also infer the author has PTSD from war. The last sentence says “in the wide and antique eyes which still appear to watch across the castrate lawn, the haggard daylight steer.” This imagery lets the audience see that the author is probably sitting and remember seeing all the accidents that happened in the war. Also, the audience can use “antique eyes” and “haggard” to predict the old age of the author. The toad represents the soldier. But also it could reveal that the author gives dignity to death of all living

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