Orwell's Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

One can't say that that this essay is not about the common toad but, knowing Orwell and his strong ideals, the toad is only a small although somewhat enjoyable part of what he has to talk about.
The first few paragraphs are actually about the toad. It opens up with the toad included in a list of beautiful things, thus standing out in contrast.
‘Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring in his own fashion.”
It adds a sense of mystery with the question of what makes it wake up from hibernation and then goes on to state the oddity that some toads may stay asleep throughout the year and not wake up at all.
Description comes into the second paragraph which makes the creature even more interesting.
“the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body shrunken and by contrast, his eyes look abnormally large.”
He goes on to rave about the beauty of the toad’s eye, comparing it to gems or a precious metal. Then there is a switch to description of a toad’s behaviour at this time. Orwell appears to speak from personal experience when he says that if you put out a finger or stick, the toad will cling to it until he discovers it is not a female. He follows this with a visual and perhaps humorous account of an orgy in the water.
“You can distinguish the male because he is smaller, darker and sits on top”
This humour is continued on into the fifth paragraph.
“..the spawning of toads not much mentioned by poets”
Only now do we come to the beginning of Orwell's real topic; that the joys of Spring should not be criticised by serious minds overly concerned with social issues and fond of steel and cement. In other words, a social conscious or passion for modern industrialism do not have to be dropped in order to enjoy a Spring flower or the warbling of a bird just returned from more southerly climates. And yet, speaking about a long winter, he manages to link in reference to the toad once again.
“But Persephone, like the toads, always rises from the dead at about the same moment.”
The reaction to the piece is predicted in later paragraphs. Orwell says he will probably be abused and dismissed as being sentimental . He outlined possible criticism stated the three strongest views. One would be that people should be discontented and not take pleasure in the process of life. Another would be that it was the age of the machine and there was no room for thoughts of Nature. Third, some would think that only those living in cities could enjoy nature as those who work close to it, could not afford to be so romantic. In advance Orwell is able to provide an argument to those comments through research into agricultural societies which glorified Nature in song and poetry.
Orwell answers these possible objections with an opinion:
“Certainly we ought to be discontented....and yet if we kill pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of Spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia?”
The last paragraph manages to link the toad in with the idea of Spring's fertility but it is mixed with an almost pornographic voyeurism.
“How many times has he watched toads mating?”
Of course we must not forget that Orwell is English and perhaps voyeuristic tendencies are more accepted. The popularity of such gems of television in England as "One Man and His Dog" and a similar bird watching programme contains an sense of excitement little understood by other nationalities.
Orwell concludes the essay with a human rational face on things by arguing that you can still be a committed socialist, and enjoy the pleasures the earth has to offer.
“Spring is Spring....the earth is still going around the sun and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
This essay could easily have been a boring or indeed sentimental. It was anything but.
With the inclusion of strange material, sex, humour, contrast along with examples, opinions, arguments, it was an enjoyable piece of writing that, in my opinion, managed to get its message through clearly.