How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
[…] The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it. (31–33)
By the end of the poem, the speaker seems to have lost some of his innocence regarding the world, at least this little slice of the natural world. He's become wary of the frogs—now they're menacing slime kings—that he was once so unwaveringly excited about.