Death Of The Toad Analysis

When mowing the grass, it is very easy to miss the toad that might be hiding among the blades of grass. Does it matter if this single toad dies at the blades of the mower? “The Death of the Toad” tells the tale of this final day in the life of this toad. The toad is clipped and eventually dies from the blow but that only creates the questions of what is meaningless and what is meaningful. Does this amphibian’s life matter or does death have the final say? Also, why is the toad in a manmade garden in the first place? Toads never were intended to domesticated creatures, so why does one end up in a place where a manmade object kills him? Wilbur brings the reader down to earth with the toad as it sits hidden in the grass to bring the reader …show more content…
Wilbur creates a false sense of finality when the toad eventually succumbs to the blood loss because although at the moment it seems like it is the end of the road, or garden, it is really the first step towards the infinite afterlife. The toad “returns to stone” in the second stanza giving the idea that the toad’s life is finished and there is no life left, as stones do not have any sort of life in them. In the final stanza the sunset is going down giving a finite end to that day or this toad’s life. The very earth that the toad’s blood flows into as he dies seems to give an idea of hopelessness as it is withered as the toad’s skin is. Wilbur then contrasts those ideas with the third and final stanza of the sea, shores, and emperies which give hope and newness rather than withered and despair. The sea receives the toad with ebullience which can be interpreted as bubbling with enthusiasm or exuberance, the shores give a cooling sensation which could be to calm the toad from its tragic death. It is unclear exactly what kind of afterlife the toad is going into, but earlier in the second stanza the toad “dies soundlessly into the deep monotone.” The idea of a monotone could be suggesting that the toad is simply returning to the hum or the earth or of nature, but this contradicts with the excitement of the seas. Then Wilbur throws in the idea of the emperies in the afterlife of the toad. Emperies implies the idea of sovereignty or absolute reign with which Wilbur could mean a sovereign God is waiting to receive the toad into an eternal resting place away from what hindered him in his earthly life. Ultimately it seems as if the toad found its natural place and even his life in his