CBSE Class 10 Answered
Hi Soundarajan,
The poem speaks about a frog who had a rather unpleasant voice. Despite this, he was full of self-confidence. He often croaked all night much to the annoyance of the other animals in the forest. They were tired of his incessant crocking and insulted him whenever he started singing. But the frog was adamant and didn’t heed their criticism no matter how much they rebuked him. He believed that his voice was very special and was insensitive to the distress he was causing others. His arrogance was one day shattered by the arrival of the nightingale whose melodious voice was seen as a welcome change from the frog’s harsh cacophony. The other animals appreciated her mellifluous voice and rewarded her with thunderous applause. The frog was threatened by the presence of the talented rival and was jealous of all the adulation she was garnering. So, he hatched a plan to destroy her and get her out of his way.
The underlying theme of the poems is that the naïve can be exploited or harmed by the cunning. The frog exploited the innocent nightingale and cashed in on her talent. He not only broke her down physically by making her sing in the rain, he also crushed her spirit and her morale. He destroyed her inside out. Ultimately, she, like the poor fly who met her end in the spider’s web, succumbed to the treachery of the frog.