The Frog & the Nightingale....

                                        ABOUT THE POET

Born in Calcutta in 1952 to Prem Nath,a Shoe Company Executive,And Laila Seth,a Judge,Vikram Seth is the eldest of three children in Seth family.

A brilliant student right from his days in Doon School,Vikram passed his "O level" exams with distinctian. Later he went on to study at Ton bridge School and Oxford University in e England and Stanford University in the USA.He studied philosophy,politics and economics.During his two year stay in China (1980-82),he studied poetry and Languages at Nanjing University and found himself "more interested in poetry than economics".

                                          ABOUT THE POEM   

"The Frog and the Nightingale"is an allegory having a participation of more than half a dozen birds and animals like ducks,herons,loons,toads,teals,tiddlers etc.The poem lays bare the manipulation and hypocrisy of the unscrupulous scheming peole who resort to all underhand means to survive and thrive in the competitive world.

In a bog,called Bingle Bog,there lived a Frog who had got it into his head that he could sing .While other creatures of the bog found his voice a 'crass cacophony' (i.e.a very loud and unpleasant voice), he considered it to be a 'splendid baritone.'(i.e.a fairly deep male singing voice)

The Frog was so passionate about his singing that he would sing endlessly from evening till morning light.This was his way of expressing his heartfelt joy, he claimed.

Not only was he proud and boastful,but insensitive, too.He would not care for the comfort, convenience, peace and privacy of other. He would just go on singing.

Quit frustrated and fed up with the nuisance, the other creatures tried to silence the Frog by insulting him, threatening him, beating him, stoning him and even complaining against him. But all in vain. Frog'g cacophony continued unabated (not diminished) until one nigth there came to the bog a Nightingale who sang her melodious song.

Everyone in the bog was pleasantly surprised to hear such a soothing and sweet voice. While the Nightingale won everyone's admiration, the Frog was bewildered to hear the Nightingale' song. His mouth was left wide open in shock and disbelief. Cunning as he was,he senses that his position as the only singer of the blog would be threatened, should the Nightingale continue to sing there.

His fear came true,for birds from all over the blog assembled near the sumac tree to listen to the Nightingale's sensational song.When she concluded the song,everyone richly applauded her.Only the Frog did not could not relish it.

The  Nightingale's song was such a hit that the bog creatures requested her to sing again and again and yet again.Unused to much of attention and praise,she readily obliged by singing continuously throughout the night.

The wicked Frog could not bear it. Very secretly, this jealous creature hit ^upon _a plan to get rid of the Nightingale in order to be the _unrivalled singer of the bog.

s_o he introduced himself to the Nightingale as the owner of the tree where she had perched and sung her song. He also let her know that he was famous all over the bog for his very deep manly singing voice. _aaimin_g to be a music critic of note, he added that he wrote a column for the music magazine the 'Bog Trumpet.'
Believing every word of what he said, the gullible Nightingale was deeply impressed with him and considered him to be as great a musician as Mozart (an Austrian composer).
So, when the Frog, as part of his game plan to eliminate her, offered to train her to sing, she felt happy and readily agreed for it hoping to be a master musician like him.
Thus her vocal training began. Very talented and inspired by the appreciation of the bog creatures, she sang to a distinguished audience and became a huge sensation.
Now onwards, the Frog started organising her concerts regularly and minted a lot of money. Besides the ticket money he would also charge money for training her. He conducted unusually long training sessions for her even in the rainy weather in which it was not natural for the Nightingale to sing. Ignoring her protests, he asked her to practise even longer and to add more zing and trills to her songs and • scolded her even for minor mistakes.
Exhausted with long hours of training, the Nightingale lost the natural charm of her music and became a dull and boring singer. Consequently, audience started losing interest in her performance. By now she had become used to singing for the packed audiences.

Declining numbers at her concert gave her a rude shock for now _she was terribly afraid of failure. Unable to take in the pressur_e t_o perform better for 'better billing' and afraid of the Frog's scoldin_g, _she overexerted her vocal cords and burst a vein and died.

Although, outwardly the Frog did condole her death, inwar,a_y was happy that he had got rid of her.

He called the Nightingale stupid for being so gullible and simpl_e_ minded and accused her of not singing her own original songs j_ust

he did.

Once again The crass cacophony' of the Frog began to blare fr_{om the}
sumac tree. The Frog once again became the unrivalled singer _of the

bog.

                                        RHYME SCHEME

The rhyme scheme of the poem is as bb cc dd

THEME

The poem highlights the plight of those gullible people whose simplicity and credulous nature makes them complete misfits in the world of manipulation. The go-getters elbow their way to the forefront pushing the deserving to the background. The shy and the timid fail to put their foot down and the dominating and the LI Imineering go about exploiting them without any sense of remorse or guilt.

TITLE

The story of "The Frog and the Nightingale" is based on two main characters - the Nightingale and the Frog. Hence, the poet has rightly included both of them in the title of the poem. However, though the Nightingale is the pivotal character, the poet has chosen to call the Poem The Frog and Nightingale" rather than "The Nightingale and the Frog". Thus, he cleverly hints at the dominating nature of the Frog. Hence, the poem has a well-chosen and a well-worded title

MESSAGE

n order to survive in the manipulative world today, it is important to have worldly wisdom. It is only one's individuality and reasoning that can save one from getting duped and exploited. One must know one's limitations and capabilities to be able to decide the course of one's life.

ANNOTATIONS

. Bingle Bog : A wet marshy land called Single. Notice how musical this fictitious name is.

. dusk to dawn : from late evening till early morning.

. awn : Vikram Seth has invented this word and uses it in place of 'on' so that it is similar to dawn both in sound and appearance (aural and visual rhyme).

. Other creatures : other inhabitants of the bog.

. loathed : hated, detested

. alas, they had no choice The Frog continued to sing unmindful of whether others liked his voice or not / The bog creatures had to put up with cacophony of the Frog as nothing could silence this uncooperative creature.

·   crass: stupid, meaningless.

·   cacophony : confused, meaningless jarring sound. Here it refers to the harsh, loud and jarring voice of the Frog.

·    blared : blare is loud, irritable and unbearable sound. Here it means that the Frog sang too loudly.

·   sumac tree : a shrub or tree having reddish cone shaped fruits used as a spice in cooking.

·   at whose foot : under which i.e. under the sumac tree.

minstrelled : the only positive word used for the Frog's song. The frog Lives under the illusion that his voice is as melodious as that of

a minstrel.It may be ironic also if we go by the historical meaning of the world 'minstrel'-a person who entertained patrons with singing,buffoonery etc..

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