The Death of a Toad

Toads

Many people are outside on a hot, summers’ day mowing their lawns. Most people at some point in their lifetime have hit or run over something living. In the poem “The Death of a Toad” by Richard Wilbur, the speaker tells his experience of hitting a toad with the “power mower”. Through the rhyme scheme, rhythmic pattern, sound techniques, and figures of speech, the poet reveals how the toad suffers by the harm the speaker inflicts on the toad. The poet arranges the poem in three stanzas of six lines. Throughout the lines the poet’s rhyme scheme is AABCBC. The three stanzas reveal the speaker’s emotional response to taking the toad’s life. Stanza one illustrates how the toad gets caught in the mower. The toad tried to find sanctuary “Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade.” The speaker describes how the toad finds his final resting place. Stanza two portrays the toad’s death. The toad’s blood is draining out of him back into the earth. The toad is helpless, lying still and quietly, knowing that death is here. The final stanza expresses how the toad’s spirit releases itself to the toads’ version of heaven. While on earth, the day continues to go on through the dead eyes of the toad. The disruption of the toads’ life is shown through the three stanzas, the way the lines are indented, and use of feminine rhyme such as “caught” and “got.” The feminine rhyme makes the rhyme scheme unnatural. The syllables of the stanzas began with eight syllables and end with six, but the rest has inconsistent syllables. The poem has a loose iambic pattern with a metrical pattern of 465543. The following example shows iambic tetrameter: “A toad the power mower caught.” The poet uses enjambment as shown in stanza one:

Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade
Of the ashen heartshaped leaves, in a dim,

The commas in the middle of the lines also show an example of caesuras. Throughout the poem the poet utilizes many sound techniques. At the end of line two, the poet demonstrates the use of assonance through the words “hobbling hop” and “got.” Line eleven demonstrates the “s” sound through the words “soundlessly” and “dies.” The poet uses consonance to express the helpless, soft death of the toad. The poet uses alliteration in line fifteen with the words “Day dwindles, drowning.” The last sound technique the poet uses is onomatopoeia in line two “chewing and clipped.” The poet uses a few forms of figures of speech. He uses a paradox referring to the leaves being a sanctuary for the toad but that’s not really possible because the leaves are unable to provide a safe place for the toad. The poet later personifies the earth as having a hide in line eight. He also personifies as the daylight being haggard. The toad is so still that the poet uses a simile to compare it to stone in line ten, “As still as if he would return to stone.” When the speaker says “Amphibia’s emperies” the poet makes an allusion to heaven. The poet uses an oxymoron, “soundlessly attending.” The poet reveals how the toad suffers by the speaker’s infliction on the frog’s life. The poet gets his message across through an AABCBC rhyme scheme, iambic rhythm, many sound techniques, and various figures of speech. “The Death of a Toad” effectively engages the reader in the poem. All the poetic elements bring the reader closer to the experience without losing interest. The poet made the reader sympathize with the toad and the loss of life.