Night of the scorpion poem what is it about
Answers
"Night of the Scorpion" is a poem by Nissim Ezekiel included the AQA Anthology.It starts in a house at night where it is raining and a scorpion, in order to take some shelter, comes to the house. This poem is about how the scorpion stung the poets mother and how she escaped and the mother's love for her children.
Night of the Scorpion
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice."
The poem opens[2] in a way that suggests reflection—the speaker remembers (and, is so, older now) the night his mother was stung by a scorpion, which bit the mother because of its predatory impulse, while hiding beneath a bag of rice to escape from the rain. The speaker specifically remembers this night due to this event- namely, the mother getting bitten. The way in which the mother is bitten is also shown in 'flash of diabolic tail'; the speaker manages to suggest that the scorpion is demonic with its "diabolic" tail, and emphasises its speed with the word flash. The scorpion then flees the scene and, thus, risks the rain again. A picture of a religious village is created by what the neighbours do to paralyse the scorpion("buzz the name of God"). Their reason for this is that they believe that as the scorpion moves, his poison moves in the blood of the mother. It is also implied that they live in a caring, close-knit village by the fact that the neighbours feel welcome at all. The speaker is displeased by their arrival, comparing them to flies (unwanted and irritating) as they veritably buzzed around the mother. They tried to provide reasons and many relied on superstition to guess what the problem was. The villagers tried to find the scorpion but they couldn't. By saying," With candles and with lanterns throwing giant scorpion shadows on the sun-baked walls." the speaker is implying there is still evil haunting the house, even after the scorpion had left the house. This could also be implying that the shadows of the various house hold utensils and other items are converted by the brain of the searchers into the shadow of a scorpion- as that is what they are looking for. Many things were tried to help relieve the mother's pain but none worked. The speaker watches, helpless. The speaker's father who was sceptic and rationalist, tried to save his wife by using powder, mixture, herbs, hybrid and even by pouring a little paraffin upon the bitten toe and put a match to it, this reflects to one of the village peasant saying, "May the sins of your previous birth be burned away tonight." Which the father tries to do
Answer:The poet of ‘Night of the Scorpion’ is Nissim Ezekiel who narrates this poem by
remembering his childhood when his mother was bitten by a scorpion. He says that the
continuous rain for ten hours had driven the scorpion into the house, where it crawled
beneath a sack of rice. In the dark room, when his mother entered, the scorpion parted
the poison into her toe in fraction of seconds and probably went out again.
The peasants of the village collected in their house in large numbers like the swarms of
flies and buzzed God’s name about hundred times, praying to stop the movements of
the scorpion, as they believed that with every movement of the scorpion, the poison
would move in the mother’s blood. So, with the candles and lanterns, they even
searched their house to paralyze the evil scorpion. But he was not found.
The shadows they formed on the wall, too appeared a scorpion to the poet. The
villagers prayed that the scorpion stops and the sins of mother’s previous birth gets
washed away that night or her sufferings might decrease the misfortunes of her next
birth. They said this way the sums of evil might get balanced in this unreal world. They
called the world unreal as everything in this world is temporary and births and deaths
keep occurring in a cycle. They even prayed to god that the poison purifies her flesh. They sat around the mother
who was groaning in pain. There was peace of understanding on each face as they
believed in their prayers. The condition was becoming very messy as more neighbours
were entering the house with more candles and lanterns, the insects were also
increasing and the rain too continued. The poet’s father being a sceptic and rationalist person tried powders, mixtures and
herbs to cure the mother. However, he also tried prayers and blessings as it was a very
problematic situation He poured some paraffin upon the bitten toe and burnt it. The
priest was also performing his rites to tame the poison. Finally, after twenty hours, the
sting was lost. The mother, after getting cured, thanked God that the scorpion picked
on her and spared her children.