THE FROG AND THE NIGHTINGALE
Vikram Seth is a well-known poet in India. He was born in 1952 in Calcutta
(Kolkata). The poem The Frog and the Nightingale is from his book of poems called
Beastly tales from Here and There (1991). As the title makes it explicit that the
poems are based on narratives from various parts of the world, Greece, China, India
and Ukrain not to mention the fantasy world of Gup. The poems highlight the
tension between good and evil. These tales in verse are simple to read and are like
the fables, teaching important lessons of life. The poem under study portrays the
cunning frog and the Naïve Nightingale who pays the price of her innocence by
losing her purity, her originality and ultimately her life.