The frogspawn (Symbol)
The frogspawn is the symbol at the heart of this poem. The speaker remembers himself as a child trapping the frogspawn in jars and watching the tadpoles hatch that way. Later the frogspawn develops the power to enact revenge upon the speaker, threatening to clutch his hand and pull him into the flax-dam if he tries to scoop any into his jar.
The frogspawn does not act as a direct symbol of something else; its purpose in this poem is more ambiguous. Just as the frogspawn's color reflects the changes in the weather, on a symbolic level, it also reflects the changes in the narrator as he becomes more aware of the consequences his actions have on the world.
The frogs (Symbol)
The frogs' role shifts throughout the poem. In the first scene that the speaker describes, he does not mention frogs at all; he is intent on their frogspawn, which he brings home with him and watches as it grows. The frogs first appear in the poem when the speaker's teacher describes how there are "mammy" and "daddy" frogs. This fact does not explicitly cause the speaker's fear of the frogs, who seem to have rallied to protect their young, but the speaker's memory of Miss Walls deepens his fear. He gains empathy for the frogs as he understands them as families, but they also unsettle him, as their life seems somehow alien to his own.
The flax-dam (Symbol)
The flax-dam also works as a symbol in this poem. In the beginning of the poem it is a location where decay leads back to life. Toward the end of the poem, the flax-dam becomes more like a war zone to the speaker; the language used to describe it is more menacing. The flax-dam reflects how the speaker grows and how he sees his own growth reflected in his environment.
