Text of the Poem:
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison—flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room—
he risked the rain again.
The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of god a hundred times
to paralyze the Evil One.
With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the sun-baked walls
they searched for him:
he was not found.
They clicked their tongues
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.
May the sum of evil
balanced in this unreal world
against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain, they said.
May the poison purify your flesh
of desire, and your spirit of ambition,
they said, and they sat around
on the floor with my mother in the centre,
the peace of understanding on each face.
More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,
more insects, and the endless rain.
My mother twisted through and through
groaning on a mat.
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 watched the holy man perform his rites times
to tame the poison with an incantation.
After twenty hours
its lost its sting.
My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
and spared my children.
Summary of the Poem:
A scorpion’s Stinging the Speaker’s Mother:
The speaker's mother was stung by a scorpion one night. The scorpion had crawled into the house and hidden itself beneath a bag full of rice. It had been forced to enter the house because of the rain outside. It had then crept towards the speaker's mother and had stung her. After stinging her, the scorpion had swiftly moved away from her and gone out into the rain again, though it was because of the rain that it had come into the house.
The Best Efforts Made by the Neighbours to Relieve the Woman's Pain:
On learning about a woman having been stung by a scorpion, the peasants in the neighbourhood had come to the woman to express their sympathy and to relieve her of her pain if they could. They chanted the name of God again and again in order to nullify the effect of the scorpion's sting. The scorpion was a devil whose sting could be rendered ineffective only by this method, they thought. Then the peasants tried another device also to relieve the woman's pain or, at least, to prevent the pain from becoming more acute. They began to search for the scorpion in order to kill it because, according to a general belief, with every movement which the scorpion made, the poison, injected by it into the woman's blood through its sting, would also move and would increase her pain. Then they all wished fervently that the scorpion should remain motionless wherever it was. They also expressed the wish that the sins, which this woman had committed in her previous life, should be burned away that night by the pain of the sting and that, furthermore, the pain which she was suffering that night should lead to a decrease in the misfortunes which she might have to undergo in her next life.
The Neighbours’ Uttering Wishes:
The peasants gave utterance to some more wishes of the same kind. They expressed the wish that the woman's pain should diminish the sum-total of evil in this world which is unreal (or a kind of illusion). They expressed the wish that the poison should rid the woman of her bodily or physical desires, and should also free her of all worldly ambition.
Neighbours' Efforts to Relieve the Pain of Woman Were in Vain:
The peasants sat around the speaker's mother on the floor with the mother in the centre. They had an expression of tranquility on their faces, indicative of their belief that they understood the situation well. Then they brought more candles and more lanterns to look for the scorpion. The light of the candles and lanterns threw huge shadows on the walls of the house. But they did not find the scorpion. More neighbours came and joined the ones who were already present there. The woman in the meantime suffered all the agony of the sting; and she twisted and turned her body this way and that way, groaning all the time. The rain continued outside, and the woman continued to suffer.
The Futility of the Scientific Methods Adopted by the Speaker's Father:
The speaker's father was a man with a scientific attitude to life. He did not share the views of the peasants who were superstitious. The speaker's father was a rationalist. He applied a herb to his wife's flesh and, next, a combination of the juice of certain herbs. He even went to the length of pouring a little paraffin over the affected flesh and applying a burning matchstick to it in order to burn away the sting from the woman's bitten toe. The speaker watched the flame burning his mother's flesh; and he also watched a religious-minded man performing certain rites to subdue the poison of the sting with an incantation. After a lapse of twenty hours, the effect of the poison wore off; and the woman ceased to experience the pain of the sting.
The Woman's Thanks to God for Sparing Her Children:
At the end of it all, the speaker's mother simply thanked God for allowing the scorpion to choose only her for the sting and for not allowing the scorpion to sting any of her children.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
"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.
"Night of 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 skeptical 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. 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.”
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 burred 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.”