The Night of the Scorpion is basically a poem that is full of confusion and tension. In this poem, Nissim Ezekiel, the poet, tells about the time his mother was bitten by a scorpion. Ten hours of continuous rain had made the scorpion seek shelter under a sack of rice. The scorpion stung the mother, and he went out in the rain again. The peasants came to help the mother, and like typical villagers, they were superstitious, and they chanted the name of God. From the point of view of the child, it seemed that the peasants were like swarms of flies, and he could see scorpion shadows everywhere (the child was frightened and so obviously the memory of the scorpion haunts him). They prayed that the mother's sins of the previous birth be burned away, that her sufferings may decrease in the next birth. They prayed that the sum of evil may balance against the sum of good become diminished because of the pain she suffers. The poison would purify her flesh of desire and her spirit of ambition. They sat around while the mother groaned and twisted on the mat in pain. The child's father, who was not a superstitious person and thought logically, tried every curse and blessing, herbs and hybrids to cure his wife. The desperation and intensity of the situation changed the father to a rather superstitious person (he tried curses and blessings). He poured a bit of paraffin and set the bitten toe alight. The holy man performed his rites and tried to tame the poison with an incantation. After twenty hours it lost its sting. The mother, after all she has gone through, only thanks God that the scorpion bit her and not her children. The last three lines of the poem expresses the selfless love of a mother for her children
Copyright © 2026 eLLeNow.com All Rights Reserved.