Toads Revisited: A Poem by Philip Larkin
The poet revisits an old idea but reaches different conclusions
As the title suggests, “Toads Revisited” refers to an earlier poem, namely “Toads” which Philip Larkin wrote in March 1954. The gap to the poem under review was more than eight years, to October 1962, when Larkin was firmly established as the chief librarian of Hull University. He was no longer hoping for advancement to a top job in his profession as he had achieved his ambition. His attitude to work, which is central to both poems, seems to have undergone a subtle change in the interim. “Toads Revisited” was published in Larkin’s 1964 collection “The Whitsun Weddings”.
The Poem
Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,
Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn’t suit me.
Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,
