Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta in 1952.

He left India to study at Oxford

His first novel, The Golden Gate, is written entirely in tetrameter sonnets,

He won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1986and the Sahitya Academy award in 1988.

The Frog The bog

The Nightingale Polite, soft, timorous. –

“sorry was that you who spoke”

Nervous and shy- “Did you, did you like my song”

Timid and polite – “This is a fairy tale. And you are Mozart in disguise..”

The Frog Territorial and boastful –

I’m the frog who owns the tree. Technique was fine, But it lacked certain force

Patronising – Without proper training …You’ll remain a begnner.

Possessive, greedy – “We must aim for better billings…..”

Arrogant and condescending – “I tried to teach her… a stupid creature”

This story is about a frog and a nightingale who lived in the Bingle Bog. This poem by Vikram Seth is a musical parody

where the Frog and the Nightingale represent two contrasting characters.

The frog is the boastful, domineering character, whereas the nightingale has been portrayed as a meek, nervous, polite bird who is afraid of the frog. She submits to him without any protest.

The poem has been told in the style of a story. Starts “ Once upon a time … then the poem progresses in a definite direction and finally concludes with the death of the bird.

Some point to be noted are …. The use of the rhyming scheme makes the

poem rhythmic and musical. The poet employs interesting comparison like

– the nightingale called the frog, Mozart. The manner in which the frog trains the

nightingale has been beautifully described. The irony is that the creature which doesn’t

even know what music is tries to teach music to a bird like nightingale who possesses a melodious voice.