Death of a Toad

A detailed Summary of Death of a Toad

Richard Wilbur, the speaker in this poem, uses a stream of structure, syntax, diction, and imagery characterized by a patchwork of present thoughts, feelings, and sensory perceptions to reveal rather vividly a horrific scene of death. It is rather simple to gain a sense of the attitudes he has of the death of the toad by piecing together the random details of all the things that actually occurs and in the settings that they occur.

The structure of this poem helps the reader understand the speaker's conflicting feelings. It is divided into three stanzas, with each stanza containing six lines. The stanzas almost exhibit the shape of a diamond and the second line always juts out on the right. It is possible that Wilbur is trying to draw with his words, an image of the toad with only one leg, of which the leg being the second line of each stanza sticking out beyond all other lines. The passage of time is short but gives

a feeling of development of an entire story of the toad's corpse as it lies placidly "under the cineraria leaves, in the shade". The final stanza describing the last moments of the day helps the reader feel the speaker's desire to see the toad as it comes to its fruition of life.

The diction and imagery presented by the author is that the death of the toad does not bring peace and happiness to the "garden verge" or to the magnificent "Amphibia's emperies." He mentions an undercurrent of sadness. Lines 7-8 illustrate the "heartsblood" flowing in the "gutters"- a word that shows no hope. One has no hope of getting a fallen ring out of the gutter, nor does he have the hope of winning once his bowling ball rolls into the gutter. Furthermore, the speaker's imagery in lines 11-14 contrasts the tranquility of death with the vivid motion of life in the seas. The toad dies to the pleasure of the speaker attentively with "deep monotone."

It is apparent that a

Some common words found in the essay are:
Richard Wilbur, death toad, helps reader, diction imagery,

Approximate Word count = 651
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Death of a Toad

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