Unit ONE. post TWO

"Toads" by Philip Larkin

In the first question, made me realize that there were two toads, and although I did not answer what the question wanted, I believe understanding the purpose of the two toads is much, much more important.

The first Toad can be described as, in lay man's terms, Senior-itis. The speaker sees the first toad as the temptation to give in and quit. To essentially give up all of his worldly plans to succeed and live off the land. The first toad is his justification to living off the street and materialistically. In Line 13, the speaker says "Lots of folk live up lanes With fires in a bucket, Eat windfalls and tinned sardines - They seem to like it" (Larkin). He says this as if to say that he might like it if he tried to live off the street.

All that the first toad is is negated by the second toad, which we can simply call ambition or self determination. The second toad is the speaker's internal drive to become more than nothing. It is his want to succeed. Quite simply, the second toad gets in the way of satisfying the first.

The point of the poem is to state that one cannot satisfy his desire to be nothing and something at the same time.