Critical analysis of the poem night of the scorpion
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Answer:
Night of the Scorpion is a free verse poem with 8 stanzas and a total of 47 lines. There is no set rhyme scheme and the metre (meter in USA) is mixed, which reflects the unusual subject matter and unfamiliar nature of the incident.
This is a narrative poem which follows the story of an anonymous mother and her unfortunate encounter with a scorpion, driven indoors by relentless hours of rain. So there is a dynamic set up - human interaction with the wild side of Nature.
The scorpion is seen by some as an evil force, bringer of pain and hardship and even death. Note the use of the word diabolic as the desperate creature stings the woman and makes off out into the rain.
Or is the scorpion an innocent victim in this drama, doing what only comes naturally in an attempt to protect himself?
The peasants are seen as being superstitious and old fashioned, even illiterate, not having moved on in their thinking and culture. Is this a fair assumption to make? But they have a primitive impulse to help the mother, bringing candles and lanterns and company, which shows a willingness to share the pain.
The father meanwhile is just the opposite in the sense that he is a rational, reductive type of person who is unimpressed with the peasants and their mumbo-jumbo. Yet, he resorts to using paraffin on the mother's toe, setting it alight, not a very scientific response. Note the use of the term - flame feeding on my mother - which suggests that the flame is eating up his mother.
And all the while the speaker is there, soaking up the atmosphere, articulating, trying to make sense of ritual and rite, behaviour and reaction.
In the end there is little any of those present can effectively achieve. Superstition, folk tales, folk medicine, the complexities of occult belief, fundamental religious ritual, faith - there is no known antidote.
The mother perseveres, she is in agony all night but finally triumphs and does not succumb to the venom of the scorpion. For all that time she was unable to utter a word, capable only of groans, until the pain subsided and the relief she felt gave her the power to sum her experience up: thank goodness it was her who took the sting and not her children, for they probably would not have survived.
How noble a statement, how selfless, bringing light and goodness back into the once darkened room.
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