Bullfrog

With their lithe, long, strong legs, Some frogs are able To thump upon double- Bass strings, though pond water deadens and clogs. But you, bullfrog, you pump out Whole fogs full of horn – a threat As of a liner looming. True That, first hearing you Disgorging your gouts of darkness like a wounded god, Not utterly fantastically, I expected (As in some antique tale depicted) A broken-down bull up to its belly in mud, Sucking black swamp up, belching out black cloud And a squall of gudgeon and lilies. A surprise Now, to see you, a boy’s prize, No bigger than a rat, with all dumb silence In your little old woman’s hands.

lyric poem playful

Bullfrog - meaning Summary

Sound Larger Than Body

The poem contrasts the bullfrog's immense, frightening call with its unexpectedly small body. Heard from the pond, the sound suggests foghorns, a wounded god, or a buried bull forcing darkness from the swamp. Seeing the animal in a child's hands overturns these fantasies. Hughes explores how sound and imagination can enlarge a creature beyond its physical reality, while the final sight restores its vulnerable ordinariness.

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