Toads

Question 1

What are the two voices in toads?

Answer 1

They are two conflicting voices

Question 2

What is one voice say?

Answer 2

It hates work and is jealous of those who don’t have to work

Question 3

What does the other voice say?

Answer 3

It also hates work but believes it has to work for his identity and dehumanises those who don’t work

Question 4

What did Larkin work as and where?

Answer 4

He worked as a librarian for 30 years in the university of Hull.

Question 5

What position did he reject twice?

Answer 5

Poet laureate

Question 6

What kind of writer was he?

Answer 6

Movement writer

Question 7

What’s the structure?

Answer 7

ABAB - 4 line stanza (quatrain)

Question 8

What kind of rhyming was it and why?

Answer 8

It was a half rhyme to show the conflict between the two contrasting view points.

Question 9

1) “why should I let the __ work squat on my life”
- what’s disgusting? what does the word squat show?

Answer 9

1) toad
- work, it’s a burden

Question 10

2) “lecturers, __, losers, loblolly - men, __”
- what is he listing, feeling

Answer 10

2) lispers, louts
- his envy, angry

Question 11

3) “their __ wives are skinny as __”
- imagery? technique? what does he do to them? exaggerates the burden of?

Answer 11

3) unspeakable, whippets
- poverty, simile, he dehumanises and mocks those who don’t work, the burden of love

Question 12

4) “but I know all to well, that’s the __ that dreams are made on”
- technique? what is he about work? what’s a fantasy?

Answer 12

4) stuff
- intertextual reference - the tempest, he’s too intelligent to work, not being able to work

Question 13

5) “the fame and the __ and the money”
- technique? what does the listing show? what doesn’t reach the end goal?

Answer 13

5) girl
- repetition, he is mocking those who follow or pursue their shallow ambition, work