Toads Revisited

Theme:

This was written by a retired Larkin, and talks about the repetition of life and work, and the two types of people that work and don't work in society.

Content:

This poem is a follow-up to Larkin's first poem 'Toads', a second look at toadwork this poem is more mature and a positive poem on the presentation of work-avoiders. In this poem Larkin has escaped from his work desk, and looks at everything around him.

Structure:

The tone is straightforward, with hints of irony still in this poem. There is nine, four-lined stanzas with lots of half-rhymes which link different ideas together but there is no certainty in it. When a full-rhyme is used, the contrast of it is so obvious the reader takes in those sentences. The first poem had an ABAB rhyme scheme however this poem has AABB. 

Analysis:

• Toads are slimy, green, fat, ugly animals that are a metaphor for work, and the quality of toads are transferred onto work. In the earlier poem Toads to stand for something dark, that overtakes one's life in an unwelcoming, dominate way. There was a need to work, to fulfil those responsibilities and this toad-like behaviour made people unhappy with their lives. In this poem, he takes it less personally that people aren't working and that he sometimes isn't happy, and sees work as a friend now.
• In the first stanza Larkin is 'walking around the park' in the open, which 'should feel better than work'. The nature doesn't appeal to him, and he'd rather be at work than see the 'lake, sunshine, grass' all pleasant, optimistic things to see but he feels the total opposite, the 'should' suggests that reality isn't good as he expected.
• 'Not a bad place to be yet it doesn't suit me' suggests he doesn't like not working, a direct opinion which shows Larkin doesn't enjoy a content, unemployed life, and might regret not working longer.
• 'Palsied old step-takers' are snakey people that are retired, and working keeps him young which is further from death.
• 'Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters', nervous, terrified overworkers look like they could have a nervous breakdown because they are working so hard and now don't have to work and don't know what to do with their lives.
• Only the injured/sick shouldn't work, 'waxed-fleshed out patients still vague', unaware, not focussed and lost in their life. And the 'characters in long coats', all these people are connected by death.
• 'Deep in the litter-baskets' talks about the homeless, trying to scavenge up anything they see.
• 'All dodging the toad work by being stupid or weak', suggests that Larkin thinks people that don't work are like this, that they are silly and immoral and lazy. They have pathetic excuses, are mocked and Larkin becomes annoyed and judgemental towards this. 'Dodgers' are infirm, just people that watch other people live their lives, an outsider, which is sad and upsetting with no 'friends but empty chairs'. 'Think of being them!' makes not working sound like a bad thing, disgusted, dismissive and aggressive. 
• Larkin describes their passive lives, 'hearing the hours chime' 'watching the bread delivered' all to pass time, doing nothing.
• 'Turning over their failures' suggests that Larkin doesn't want to be like them, 'nowhere to go but indoors' the persona puts these ideas of unemployment on them, which is ironic because when he works he is trapped indoors.
• 'No, give me my in-tray', a command, Larkin shows he likes work in this stanza, and is content with his job. Work gives him a sense of purpose and authority, 'my' belongings at work. 
• 'When the lights come on at four at the end of another year?' is time passing.
• 'Give me your arm, old toad; Help me down Cemetery Road' shows Larkin cares about work, and likes it, he will embrace work until he dies and would rather work until then. Work however is a death sentence, and he knows he needs to work to support himself and survive