Leapfrog enters poetry as a metaphor for successive advancement and the use of others as means of progress. In literary contexts it symbolizes the chain of leaps. Poets use leapfrog to explore themes of hierarchy in motion, the temporary support of the one leapt over, and the playful or ambitious act of vaulting ahead in the sequence of life.

Leapfrog’s successive vaults turn the bent back of one player into the means of the next player’s advance, making the game a natural figure for hierarchical progress and temporary support. The image’s childhood energy allows poets to treat ambition itself as a series of comic or ruthless jumps. Teachers may explore the ethics of the player who is leapt over. Related vaulting and climbing games include the various forms of follow-the-leader. The image is effective when progress must depend on the body of another.