“Night of the Scorpion”, published in The Exact Name in 1965 is one of the finest poems of Ezekiel. It has been highly admired as a flawless piece of poetic composition. In it Ezekiel gives to the narrative a dramatic intensity, a beauty of imagery and a musical subtlety, and richness such as Indian poetry in English has rarely known in its recent history. This poem shows that Ezekiel is a typical Indian poet whose interest in the Indian soil and in ordinary human events of day - to - day Indian life is superb!
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| Night of the Scorpion, Summary and Critical Analysis |
“Night of the Scorpion” is a brilliant narrative poem. The protagonist might be the poet himself or an imagined person who speaks in the first person. The mother is stung by a scorpion one rainy night. The mother occupies a prominent place in Indian home. All love and respect her. So all members of the family and neighbours are very anxious to bring her quick relief:
“The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.”
They are simple and well - intentioned people who believe in the efficacy of prayer. Prayer can ward off the evil influence.
The poet also throws light on Indian superstitions. They search for the scorpion but all in vain. They are simple and ignorant people who believe that if the scorpion moves, its poison will also move in the mother's blood. The following lines reveal how superstitious they are:
“With every movement that the scorpion made
his poison moved in mother's blood, they said.
May he sit still, they said.
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said,
May your suffering decrease
the misfortune of your next birth, they said.”
The rationalist and sceptical father tries “every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.” Ezekiel ironically juxtaposes the world of magic, superstition, irrationality and blind faith, represented by the simple peasants with the world of science, rationalism and scepticism represented by the father. But the situational irony is that both the traditional superstitious way and modern scientific way are equally futile and vain. The mother suffers intense agony for full twenty hours when the pain automatically subsides.
“The last three lines form an ironic contrast to the whole:
My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
and spared my children.”
The mother who has suffered intense physical agony for twenty hours is happy that none of her children has been bitten. The poet highlights the self - effacing love of an Indian mother in the lines quoted above. P.M. Chacko writes: “The poet's objective observation of the scene of agony, which has much affinity with his father's rationalism, puts him to shame and makes him remorseful when he hears his mother's utterance which goes beyond the fragile facade of rationality. While admiring the mother's loving concern for her children, he confesses his failure to offer her even a semblance of it.” Ezekiel also shows the warmth of human relationship in this poem . The inter-relationship between the domestic tragedy and the surrounding community is unobtrusively established.
What distinguishes “Night of the Scorpion” is the juxtaposition of the forces of darkness and light that is intrinsically centripetal in the poem. The title itself “Night of the Scorpion” is suggestive of evil. The word “night” stands as a symbol of darkness along with the “scorpion” which suggests evil. Evil gives suffering. As the scorpion - poison moves in the mother's blood, her suffering increases. Evil is active in darkness. It is in the darkness of the night that the evil, symbolised in the scorpion enters the mother's body through the bite. Evil has always been associated with darkness in human psyche. Suffering is a sort of purgation that helps in removing that darker patch in human mind, the patch that has always been a besetting sin of our existence:
“May the sum of evil
balanced in this unreal world
against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain, they said.”
The superstitious and unenlightened peasants are aware of the forces of darkness and evil , and they are in search of catharsis through suffering.
The two symbols of darkness and light have been systematically developed in the poem. These two symbols are juxtaposed in the very beginning, and as the poem advances, the poet builds upon it the whole structure of his fascinating architecture.
“Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice
parting with his poison - flash
of the diabolic tail in the dark room
he risked the rain again.”
The incessant rain stands for hope and regeneration. It is juxtaposed with the destructive hurdles to fructify that hope. Life - giving rain continues and the evil, symbolised in the scorpion, departs after fulfilling its part. The hurdles, described through apt and suggestive diction, evoke the juxtaposition of light and darkness, good and evil.
“More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours
more insects, and the endless rain
My mother twisted through and through
groaning on a mat.”
How effectively and artistically the poet suggests the juxtaposition of light and darkness; “candles”, “lanterns”, “neighbours” and “the insects and the endless rain”. But the impact of evil on the mother remains unabated:
“My mother twisted through and through
groaning on a mat.”
It is through suffering that the mother is purged of the evil. The forces of evil and darkness vanish, and the forces of light and life win:
“After twenty hours
it lost its sting.”
Commenting on the symbolic juxtaposition of darkness and light Prakash P. Joshi writes: “The slow moving poison of this syndromic scorpion into the very veins of creation (the image of the mother in agency) dulling the clear vision of human thought and enveloping the whole humanity in the darker shades of confusion more chaotic, troubles the poet as much sharply as the sting of the poisonous worm. There is crisis but it is the crisis of human existence that needs to be overcome. The poet, though a distant observer, doesn't take a stance of detachment. On the exact opposite, he watches with curiosity “the flame feeding on my mother”, but being uncertain whether the paraffin flame would cleanse her of the agony of the absorbing poison, he loses himself in a thoughtful trance.”
Ezekiel uses simple, conversational language in “Night of the Scorpion”. The repetitive vocabulary is employed to highlight the crisis as it is understood by the simple peasants:
“With every movement that the scorpion made
his poison moved in mother's blood, they said.
May he sit still, they said
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said.
May your suffering decrease
the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.”
“They said” has been repeated four times in the lines quoted above. These two words form the choric refrain in this poem and have an ironic implication. The poet has to emphasise the indomitable force of darkness gripping the minds of the superstitious and unenlightened farmers. The repetition of “more” in “more candles, more lanterns, more neighbours / more insects conveys the idea of indefinite and excessive numbers. The imagery is vivid, sensitive and suggestive, for example:
“Parting with his poison - flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room—
he risked the rain again.”
and
“The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.”
and
“With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the sun baked walls.”
The poet observes complete objectivity and detachment throughout the poem. He withholds his own emotional outbursts so that we may dispassionately understand the peasants’ world of superstitions juxtaposed against his father's world of scepticism and rationalism. The two opposite words are placed in ironical juxtaposition in the following lines:
“My father, sceptic, rationalist,
trying every curse and blessing,
powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
He even poured a little paraffin
upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
I watched the flame feeding on my mother
I watch the holy man perform his rites,
to tame the poison with an incantation.”
Christopher Wiseman highly admires “Night of the Scorpion” for technical innovations and excellence: “The poem demonstrates a deliberate attempt at formal innovation by using a loose, seemingly free - verse narrative structure. It is much more relaxed and open worked than Ezekiel's formal poetry, with a new quality of natural colloquialism in diction and tone. We notice in the poem the abandonment of capitals at the start of each line, the dramatic casualness of the recalled crisis, the long paragraph set off abruptly from the three - line climax, all of which give the “Night of the Scorpion” a new feel, a sense of unhurried lucid progression through time. It is an interesting and very valid poem, containing a fascinating tension between personal crisis and mocking social observation, but the discrepancies of form confuse the tone which swings between the natural and colloquial reporting of experience and more removed literacy formality. And yet, for all the problems, a real voice is heard in this poem, with its own rhythms and cadences.”
