Night Of The Scorpion By Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel has composed the presented poetry piece "Night Of The Scorpion". It is not merely a narrative poem. It too, reveals the extent of ignorance and superstition prevailing in rural India. The villagers are ignorant, illiterate and fatalists. They don't know that medical science has prepared serums and vaccination to deal with all types of diseases that formerly were considered incurable.
The poet remembers that right when a scorpion stung his mother. The devil scorpion had entered the house and got under a rice bag. The poet guessed that it had been compelled to do so because of continuous rain for two hours. The whole incident has been described in following ways: -
Stung and went out : The devilish scorpion stung the poet's mother and poured its poison into her body. Then it flashed its deadly tail in the dark room. At last it took the risk of going out into the rain.
Sympathy and prayer : The poet says that the peasants came in a large number to express their sympathy, hearing the sad news. They came uttering the name of God is a voice that sounded like the buzzing of flies. The peasants prayed to God to make the scorpion immobile. They held candles and lanterns in their hands. Their own big shadows falling on the walls were looking like big scorpion. They were looking for the devilish scorpion but were unable to find to it. They clicked their tongues to express their sympathy for the sufferer. The peasants had a superstitious belief that if the scorpion made any move, the poison in the mother's block would too, go upwards.
Verbal consolation : The poet says that the peasants gave all the sorts of verbal consolations but they did not apply any medicine on the mother's toe like great philosophers, they. Spoke of god, evil and suffering etc. They wished that the mother's pain was due to the sins of her previous life and those sins would be burned away that right. Moreover the physical suffering inherit next birth. They prayed to god to reduce the amount of evil in the world.
Satisfaction of peasants : The peasants were sitting passively in a circle around the mother. They felt satisfied because they thought that they had performed their duties. They had on expression of peace and wisdom on their faces.
Treatment by poet's father : The poet's has described has father as a sensible person because he had no faith in prayers and superstitious. He tried all sorts of cures, powders and lotions on the bitten toe of the mother, who was groaning restlessly with pain on a mat. At lost he poured same kerosene oil on that spot and put a match to it. The poet watched it helplessly. After twenty hours the mother got some relief. She was really a great mother because she did not curse the scorpion she thanked god that it had not stung her children.
'To sum up' the poem it can be said that there are illiterate and superstitious people ever in modern era who do not know medical science. It is pathetic and shameful for those who rule the country.
Stung and went out : The devilish scorpion stung the poet's mother and poured its poison into her body. Then it flashed its deadly tail in the dark room. At last it took the risk of going out into the rain.
Sympathy and prayer : The poet says that the peasants came in a large number to express their sympathy, hearing the sad news. They came uttering the name of God is a voice that sounded like the buzzing of flies. The peasants prayed to God to make the scorpion immobile. They held candles and lanterns in their hands. Their own big shadows falling on the walls were looking like big scorpion. They were looking for the devilish scorpion but were unable to find to it. They clicked their tongues to express their sympathy for the sufferer. The peasants had a superstitious belief that if the scorpion made any move, the poison in the mother's block would too, go upwards.
Verbal consolation : The poet says that the peasants gave all the sorts of verbal consolations but they did not apply any medicine on the mother's toe like great philosophers, they. Spoke of god, evil and suffering etc. They wished that the mother's pain was due to the sins of her previous life and those sins would be burned away that right. Moreover the physical suffering inherit next birth. They prayed to god to reduce the amount of evil in the world.
Satisfaction of peasants : The peasants were sitting passively in a circle around the mother. They felt satisfied because they thought that they had performed their duties. They had on expression of peace and wisdom on their faces.
Treatment by poet's father : The poet's has described has father as a sensible person because he had no faith in prayers and superstitious. He tried all sorts of cures, powders and lotions on the bitten toe of the mother, who was groaning restlessly with pain on a mat. At lost he poured same kerosene oil on that spot and put a match to it. The poet watched it helplessly. After twenty hours the mother got some relief. She was really a great mother because she did not curse the scorpion she thanked god that it had not stung her children.
'To sum up' the poem it can be said that there are illiterate and superstitious people ever in modern era who do not know medical science. It is pathetic and shameful for those who rule the country.
