What is the style and diction used in the poem "The Frog and the Nightingale?

"The Frog and the Nightingale" is written as a third person narrative, meaning that the voice telling the story is looking on and relating the action without any involvement. Readers are taken through the series of events as they happen, as if they were watching in real time.

The diction, or word choice for the poem, is clear and simple and very expressive. The description of the frog's voice and the reaction to it is vividly portrayed: "the crass cacophony blared out...Neither stones nor prayers nor sticks, insults or complaints or bricks stilled the frog's determination..."

There is no question what the croaks that went "awn and awn and awn" sounded like, or how the listeners felt about it! Vikram Seth is also showing his humor, spelling the rhyming word "on" creatively so that it looks as well as sounds like the rhyme with "dawn." In the same way, Seth uses very picturesque and understandable language to describe the nightingale's song and the reaction to it by the other creatures in the expanding audience and by the frog.

The rhythmic pattern and rhyme is steady throughout, even as the exact number of syllables may vary from line to line.

What are figures of speech used in "The Frog and the Nightingale?"

Vikram Seth's poem, "The Frog and the Nightingale," has many different figures of speech (or literary devices) within its lines. The first stanza of the poem is seen below (with the literary device and definition provided within the parentheses.) The part of the poem the literary device examples are bolded.

Once upon a time a frog

(Assonance- repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. Here, the "a" is repeated.)

Croaked away in Bingle Bog

(Alliteration- repetition of a consonant sound within a line of poetry. Here, the "b" sound is repeated.)

Every night from dusk to dawn

(Alliteration again; the "d" sound is repeated.)

He croaked awn and awn and awn

(Assonance again; the "a" sound is repeated. Also, repetition is used (as seen with the word "awn" being used three times within the line)). 

Other creatures loathed his voice,

(Personification- the giving of human characteristics to nonliving/nonhuman things. Here, the other creatures loathe the frog. Loathing is an emotion allotted to humans, not animals.)

But, alas, they had no choice,

(Personification again; "they" (the creatures) cannot choose to loathe something or not.)

And the crass cacophony

(Alliterations again; the "c" sound is repeated.

Blared out from the sumac tree

(No literary device.)

At whose foot the frog each night

(Alliteration again, the "f" sound is repeated.)

Minstrelled on till morning night

(Alliteration again, the "m" sound is repeated.)

Personification is seen throughout the rest of the poem where the frog and the nightingale are given the ability to speak to each other. Personification is also seen when the emotions of the animals is mentioned.