Night of the Scorpion Essay

The father of post emancipation Indian English versify, Nissim Ezekiel, was a Mumbai born, Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic. His flora atomic number 18 an important part of Indian literary history. His major themes are love, loneliness, creativity and human foibles. Via his works, he satirized evil practices, superstitions and ignorance of the Indian people, as he has in this poem. He made Indian English poetry eatable for the common man. He wanted simplicity of thought and language in modern poetry. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award 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 space and does not follow any rhyming pattern. The Night of the Scorpion captures a characterization in a pastoral Indian village where being bitten by a scorpion was a common fear. The narrator is a young nipper wi tnessing a horrific event in his life- his own mother wriggling in agony of a scorpions sting. Along with the anguish of the family members, the poet describes the line for the mother by the villagers.The child describes the scorpion as the displease Himself by development adjectives like diabolic and similarly refers to it as the metaphorical Evil wizard. However, the poet also says that the scorpion had been forced to crawl beneath a sack of strain by the torrential rain and later had to risk the rain over 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 elephantine scorpion shadowsOn the sun-baked wallsThis aids us to visualize the scene of Villagers searching for the scorpion external the cottage in the steady 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 and sorrows. This is evident since the poet uses the line the peasants came like swarms of move. 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 baseless 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 illiterate villagers are clueless about proper medication. In an effort to help, they require to deity to paralyze the scorpion so that, as their superstition states, the poison would also be paralyzed in the mothers blood. The villagers also suppose in the Karma philosophy. This philosophy was born in Indi a and in certain cultures it is intertwined with the design 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 variety Of desire and your spirit of ambition 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 expose of mothers unconditional love, the poem ends with the mother saying, Thank god the scorpion picked on me and spared my children