"Ranas" oh, wait, "Toads" (it might as well have been in Spanish), I figured I'd blog about it and hope that someone comments it along the line and makes me feel better about myself. or worse. whichever.
The first "toad" is obviously work. the speaker states that right off the bat. I love the diction and imagery that the author uses here too. In the first two lines alone we have "Why should I let the toad work/Squat on my life?" then it begins to get more gruesome in the ways that the speaker wants this toad gone. it's a plague to society, he seems to feel. however, it's a necessary evil. the speaker realizes that without work, life just wouldn't function the same way. he also comments though that people complain all the time about the work they do and how their kids would "starve" if they were to stop working, "and yet/[n]o one actually starves.
the other toad I think is reality. just in general. the two are always there. they go hand in hand, but there's a balance. one can't put all of his time and energy into work, or he loses touch with reality. but at the same time, work exists as a part of this reality. it's a delicate balance that must be maintained. and while these two prevent one from "getting/[t]he fame and the girl and the money/[a]ll at one sitting," (lines 30-32), the two are intertwined, but not connected. I feel the speaker sums up the relationship nicely in the last stanza, particularly the last two lines: "But I do say it's hard to lose either,/[w]hen you have both."
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