FROG AND THE NIGHTINGALE
POEM SUMMARY
Poet: Vikram Seth (written in 1994)
ABOUT THE POEM
Here is a very witty and highly satiric poem based on a very simple parable. The meaning of the poem is very simple seen through symbols. A simple-hearted, sweet-tongued, low abiding and innocuous bird in the nightingale is deceptively ‘murdered’ by a crafty, clever, wily, manipulating and ugly-looking frog simply because she has dared to threaten its supremacy in Bingle Bog. The poem reeks with political connotation and brings forth how those in the upper hierarchy of power murder those who dare oppose them. Strangle the ploys used against them are so foolproof that they get absolved of any trace of responsibility. The vocabulary in the poem is highly suggestive and musical.