TOADS

Question 1

Why should I let the toad work squat on my life?

Answer 1

rhetorical question = sense of anger and frustration towards work - appears burdensome

Question 2

Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork and drive the brute off?

Answer 2

questions potential solutions to escaping work - futile
forceful image = emph burden

Question 3

Six days of the week it soils with its sickening poison

Answer 3

use of sibilance emph the speaker’s anger towards work - cyclically poisonous nature

Question 4

just for paying a few bills!

Answer 4

exclamatory juxtaposes the previous cyclical nature of work - shows the disappointment and unfulfilling nature of work that burdens the speaker (disproportionate)

Question 5

Lecturers. lispers/ Losers, lolloby-men, louts

Answer 5

alliterative listing and antithesis how the speaker shows mocking towards these groups who don’t do as much work as him - jealousy and anger

Question 6

lots of folks live up names / nippers have got bare feet/ are skinny as whippets

yet no one actually starves

Answer 6

simile and image of homelessness portrays how the speaker dehumanises and looks down upon them for not work - those who need it the most are not burdened by it (mocks) - spiteful

Question 7

But I know all too well, that’s the stuff that dreams are made on

Answer 7

argument marker + use of intertextual reference reflects the speaker’s mocking of a reality without work - prospero making a statement on utopian world- compares it to a fantasy

Question 8

for something sufficiently toad like squats in me too

Answer 8

toad inside of him = innate desire to work + understanding of social expectations of the system which means he has to work
makes up part of his identity whether he likes it or not

Question 9

hunkers are heavy as hard luck/ as cold as snow

Answer 9

image of permanence and immovable toad/burden for work

Question 10

and will never allow me to blarney

Answer 10

mocks those who attempt to dissuade from work - views it as insincere since work is innate and unavoidable

Question 11

the fame the girl and the money

Answer 11

listing mocks these superifical external ambitions which influence his work

toad inside him dissuades him from unvirtuous desires - more focused on the process of hardwork rather than the end goal = more meaningful

Question 12

one spiritual truth/ when you have both

Answer 12

image of balance between the inevitability of work and the resentment towards it - work continues anyways + hard to lose desires for both

Question 13

what is the structure of Toads?

Answer 13

quatrains reflect the cyclical and restrictive nature of work/ social expectations that the speaker is subjected to

Question 14

half rhymes in toads

Answer 14

speaker’s indecisiveness about the issue of work due to the existence of both toads still causing him to continue his work - debates the issue

Question 15

social/historical context for Toads

Answer 15

1950s Britain become influenced by the popularity of American consumerist culture - happiness deriving from wealth and superficial nature

speaker in the poem rejects this idea and does not find this romanticised capitalist ideology as appealing despite it being a popular goal

Question 16

biographical context toads

Answer 16

Larkin remained in the position of chief librarian at Hull Uni for 30 years - hermit of hull- and stayed out of the poetry limelight to focus on his work + rejected prestigious title of poet laureate

Question 17

literary context for Toads

Answer 17

the speaker’s continued debate on the issue of work without landing on a firm conclusion + argument markers and balanced at end are typical of the movement which was more realistic and less romanticised

speaker realises innate desire to work as a result of his reality