Nissim Ezekiel: Night of the Scorpion

In this poem Ezekiel remembers “the night” his “mother was stung by a scorpion”.
The poem is not really about the scorpion or its sting. It contrasts the reactions of
family, neighbours and his father with the dignity and courage of his mother. He
sympathetically describes the scorpion as it shelters from ten hours of rain but it is so
frightened that it “risk(s) the rain again” when it has stung his mother.

The poem shows the peoples’ superstitious reactions:

 the peasants try to “paralyse the Evil One” (the devil, ie the scorpion)
 the peasants believe that when the scorpion moves the poison in the
mother’s blood will move
 they hope that the pain is cleaning the mother from a sin in the past (“your
previous birth”) or a sin in the future (“your next birth”)

“May the poison purify your flesh/of desire and the spirit of ambition/they said”
shows that they think that the poison will make the mother better. The poet’s father
normally does not believe these superstitions (he is “sceptic, rationalist” – he doubts
superstitions and believes in scientific reason). But he is now worse than the other
peasants, as he tries “every curse and blessing” and every antidote that he can think
of. The “holy man” performs “rites” but the relief comes with time: “After twenty
hours it lost its sting”.

The end of the poem is its most effective part. The mother has been in a lot of pain so
that she could not speak (“she “twisted…groaning on a mat”). At the end she thinks
of her children and thanks God that the scorpion did not sting them (this could kill a
child and is very painful).

There is a contrast between the long first section of the poem(everyone is panicking)
and the short second section (the mother’s simple words – thinking of her children,
not of herself). The lines are not all the same length and do not rhyme. The lines run
on to the next line (this is sometimes called enjambement).

The poem is in the form of a short narrative –free style. The images show what is
there – the candles, the lanterns, the shadows. The poem tells us what people are
saying but there are no speech marks and it is not their exact words. The poem shows
us another culture and surprises us with the reactions of the people. How would your
family react to a scorpion sting?

Do you think that the title of the poem is a good one for the poem that follows or a
movie?
How do the people try to understand the scorpion’s attack or see it as a good thing?
Are scorpions really evil? Does the poet think that they are “diabolic” animals?
What are the different reactions of the father and the mother?
What does the poem say about the beliefs of the people in the poet’s home culture?
In what way is this a poem not a short story that is broken into lines?
How does the poet use what people said to bring the poem to life?

Adapted from www.universalteacher.org.uk

A M Taylor
Lincs EMAS
 Nissim Ezekiel: Night of the Scorpion

Keywords

sting the pain a poisonous insect or animal gives you

dignity behaving calmly and earning peoples’ respect

sympathetically feeling kind feelings for someone

shelters staying safe from something, eg rain

peasants usually poor farmers

poison a substance that can kill you if it enters your body

sin breaking a religious or moral law

antidote something that stops or reduces the effects of poison

panicking when you feel fear that you can’t control

narrative a story

Adapted from www.universalteacher.org.uk

A M Taylor
Lincs EMAS