Night of the Scorpion Essay

The father of post Independence Indian English verse, Nissim Ezekiel, was a Mumbai born, Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic. His works atomic number 18 an important part of Indian literary history. His major themes are love, l wizliness, creativity and human foibles. Via his works, he satirized evil practices, superstitions and ignorance of the Indian people, as he has in this verse. He made Indian English poetry digestible for the common man. He wanted simplicity of thought and language in modern poetry. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi yield for his poetry collection Latter-Day Psalms.This poem, Night of the Scorpion, is one of his most famous poems. It has been written in free verse which means that it is highly irregular in terms of line length and does not follow any rhyming pattern. The Night of the Scorpion captures a scene in a rural Indian liquidation where being bitten by a scorpion was a common fear. The narrator is a young child witnessing a hor rific event in his life story- his own get down writhing in agony of a scorpions sting. Along with the anguish of the family members, the poet describes the concern for the mother by the villagers.The child describes the scorpion as the Devil Himself by development adjectives like diabolic and also refers to it as the metaphorical Evil One. However, the poet also says that the scorpion had been forced to crawl beneath a sack of rice by the torrential rain and later had to risk the rain again. This shows a subtle feeling of pity underlying the fact that the scorpion was the Devil Incarnate.Imagery is one of the main literary devices used in this poem. With candles and lanternsThrowing giant scorpion shadowsOn the sun-baked wallsThis aids us to visualize the scene of Villagers searching for the scorpion outside the cottage in the loyal downpour amidst the sun-baked huts.In most rural Indian villages, the entire village is like a community. Each family shares in each others joys an d sorrows. This is bare since the poet uses the line the peasants came like swarms of flies. As a hyperbole, this line shows their immense numbers. It also shows that the people were much of a hindrance than a help like a swarm of flies. It also shows how, in close-knit communities, all news spreads like wildfire. The fruitless passing of time is also shown by the line, More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,More insects and the endless rain. Another aspect of rural society, unfortunately, is their belief in baseless superstitions and beliefs. Having being denied proper education facilities, they remain unaware of the truth. These uneducated villagers are clueless about proper medication. In an effort to help, they pray to god to paralyze the scorpion so that, as their superstition states, the poison would also be paralyzed in the mothers blood. The villagers also believe in the Karma philosophy. This philosophy was born in India and in certain cultures it is intertwined wi th the concept of reincarnation, or life after death. The villagers chant, May the sins of you previous birthBe burned away tonight And, May the poison purify your flesh Of desire and your spirit of inhalation Thus, they imply that the mothers desires and ambitions are the sins that she is paying for.Finally, the mothers ordeal comes to an end. In a display of mothers unconditional love, the poem ends with the mother saying, Thank god the scorpion picked on me and spared my children