‘Tadpoles’ and ‘Toads’ are two fascinating, descriptive poems written by Fleur Adcock, about her love for toads and frogs. As the titles suggest, ‘Tadpoles’ refers to the birth of several frogs, and ‘Toad’ describes the death of an adult frog. In both poems, there is clear evidence of Adcock’s emotional connectino with the creatures. Adcock draws a personal element by connecting the young tadpoles with her grandson, Oliver. Looking at the tadpoles now, she is reminded of her grandson, when he was ‘[still] a tadpole in Elizabeth’s womb’. Although Oliver is ‘too far away now for [me] to call him across the world’, Adcock makes it clear that she deeply misses him, and wishes he were by her side to witness the growth of these little tadpoles.
‘Toads’ is a different poem, where Adcock mourns the death of her beloved pet toad. However, towards the end of the poem, there is a sense of reincarnation where the toad chooses to turn up to the narrator’s doorstep. The fact that the toad seems to reappear again to them, ‘a little shadow shaped like a brown leaf hoppedout of greener leaves and came to me’ in stanza seven, suggests that the toad may have come in her father’s spirit, suggesting a very personal and spiritual connection. ‘Greener leaves’ highlights the rebirth of the animal and earlier in stanza three, Adcock states that she ‘saw his spirit in every visiting creature’.
Perhaps ‘Toads’ is about her appreciation for animals and a sense of belief in reincarnation. Similarly, in ‘Tadpoles’, we can see through her descriptions, there is a sense of protection. She refers to herself as their ‘hugely gloating grand-maternal frog’. In the poem, she explores parallels between the growth of a tadpole and a foetus in the womb.