98 The Poets and Nature. 



" I went to the toad that breeds under the wall ; 

 I charmed him out, he came to my call. 

 I scratched out the eyes of the owl before ; 

 I tore the bat's wing what would you have more ? " 



But, like Robin Goodfellow, who was also the companion 

 of hobgoblins and ail manner of Serene Naughtinesses, they 

 exercised their power with consideration and benevolence. 



Wordsworth regards the frog as a sort of amphibian Mark 

 Tapley, and sees in the creature jumping about on a wet 

 day a moral of cheerfulness under depressing circumstances, 

 and bids his readers 



" Learn from him to find a reason 

 For a light heart in a dull season." 



But considering that Wordsworth professed an exceptional 

 sympathy with nature, it is curious that he should have 

 missed sense by such a distance. Wet days are, of course, 

 the frog's gayest weather ; then it picnics, flirts, puffs out, 

 is happiest As a matter of fact, Wordsworth knew this 

 very well. 



11 On shore the coming deluge draws the race 

 Of reptiles from their haunts, in mead and grove, 

 Concealed the puffing frog, the horned snail, 

 And all the species of the slimy tribes." Grahame. 



Indeed, in myth, they are often clouds and pluvial. Their 

 croaking is the rain signal. They are "rain-desiring," so 

 "rain-heralding," and thus come to be "rain-compelling." 



Of the actual frogs of story the poets have three groups. 

 There are first those "good ^Esop's frogs" that asked for 



a king 



"Thus kings were first invented, and thus kings 

 Were burnished into heroes, and became 

 The arbiters of this terraqueous swamp, 

 Storks among frogs." 



and after \vards changed the dynasty 



