It s about a mother s transformative relationship with her daughter (presumably). Receiving the gift of the silver frog pendant, the speaker remembers a camping trip when her kid tricked her with a soap container containing a small frog, which jumped on her chest. It s implied that she reacted badly (probably freaking out), as the reaction is said to have been different from her own mother s reaction to the speaker s similar childhood tricks with empty eggshells. Their Sunday morning ritual was to have boiled eggs in egg cups, and the speaker would invert her empty shell in the egg cup and offer it to her mum–who then imaginatively pretended it was the egg of an interesting animal, carefully cut off the top, and pretended something wonderful was born (imagery of birth and transformation related to creative imagination as well and nurturing of a child through encouragement). The speaker was changed by her daughter such that she s no longer terrified of frogs or newborn babies (also “strange creatures” she once ran from). She s become more adventurous and embraced life more fully, it seems. The allusion to Demeter s plunge into another world (to Hades to retrieve her daughter, Persephone) relates again to dramatic change–though hopefully NOT suggesting the speaker s daughter is in a hellish place or held captive by a domineering and controlling partner! Another important change is the speaker s “losing all singularity” with her daughter s birth, probably referring to her suddenly caring for another person (her child) as much as herself and/or thinking of their lives as closely intertwined. The gift represents this close relationship which changed her from a solitary individual who was in some ways afraid of life (e.g., icky frogs and newborns). On a cord necklace and resting on her throat, the silver frog at the end also influences or transforms the speaker s words–or, implicitly, her thoughts which the words express. That s a bit more of an analysis. Cheers....
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