Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the big epiphany in The Wind in the Willows. Their are other little epiphanies, such as in chapter 11, 'Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears.' Toad comes back from his great adventure and finds Toad hall overtaken. After Rat tells him that Mole and Badger have been camping outside the hall, Toad starts sobbing and sincerely realizes how ungratefully he has been. This is one of the epiphanies that Toad has that changes him into a humble toad. However, I brought up this chapter for any other reason. The chapters name is from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson titled "Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead." The poem goes like this:

Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
'She must weep or she will die.'
Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;

Yet she neither moved nor wept.
Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee--
Like summer tempest came her tears--
'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

I think the poem is connected to the chapter, but in a weird way. Toad returns home in this chapter, believing himself to be a warrior, but Toad is not dead (nor a true warrior), such is the warrior in the poem. I believe Toad is both the warrior and the mother. When Toad returns it is a part of himself that has to die in order to live peacefully in Toad Hall. He weeps for the carefree and childlike Toad that can never drive cars or give speeches again. Toad is so conceded that he plays both roles of the poem, it's pretty humorous.