Night of the Scorpion
Chapter 3.1 • Standard Ten • English • Poet: Nissim Ezekiel
Paraphrase of the Poem
The speaker remembers the night his mother was stung by a scorpion. The scorpion had hidden beneath a sack of rice to escape the rain.
The neighbours gather like a swarm and try to “paralyse” the scorpion, believing that as it moves, the poison moves through the mother’s blood. They search everywhere with candles and lanterns, but cannot find it.
Many remedies are tried but none ease her pain. The speaker, a young boy, watches helplessly. His father, a sceptic and rationalist, tries powders, mixtures, herbs and hybrids, and even pours paraffin on the bitten toe and sets it alight. A holy man chants to tame the poison.
After twenty hours the poison loses its sting and the mother is well again. Her love for her children shows when she thanks God that the scorpion picked on her and spared her children.
Meanings
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| diabolic | having the qualities of the devil; wicked |
| paralyse | to stop an activity |
| diminished | lessened; reduced |
| groaning | a mournful sound conveying pain or grief |
| sceptic | one who doubts general beliefs |
| rationalist | a person who values reason and knowledge over opinion and belief |
| incantation | the chanting of words that claim to have magical power |
Warming Up!
1. Get into pairs and discuss the following with your partners and complete the table. Many people are superstitious. This means that they have belief for which they have no logical reason. An example of superstition is that – walking under a ladder brings bad luck. In pairs, list any superstitions that you know of.
Ans:
| Superstition | Implication |
|---|---|
| (i) Smashing a mirror | Brings seven years of bad luck. |
| (ii) A cat crossing your path | Causes you to get delayed. |
| (iii) Friday the 13th | Is a bad day to do anything; the number is considered ominous. |
| (iv) Going outside during an eclipse | Causes health problems. |
2. Brainstorm what you know about Scorpions. Use the points given below.
Ans:
- (1) How they attack? They sting their victim and inject venom into its body.
- (2) Where they live? In deserts, holes, and wherever there are heaps of rubbish or garbage.
- (3) Their appearance: They have eight legs, a pair of grasping pedipalps, and a narrow, segmented tail carried in a forward curve over the back, ending in a venomous stinger.
- (4) Any more information: They survive harsh climates by slowing their metabolism. They are associated with lobsters, spiders and snakes. Their sting is poisonous and can kill.
In Between the Poem
Q1. What forced the scorpion to take shelter in the poet’s house?
Ans: It was a rainy night and water streamed into the scorpion’s hole. It entered the poet’s house only for shelter and warmth, without any intention of stinging anyone.
Q2. What does the phrase ‘to paralyse the evil’ mean in stanza 3?
Ans: It means the villagers tried to reduce and stop the effect of the scorpion’s poison.
Q3. Who are ‘they’ in stanza 4?
Ans: ‘They’ refers to the villagers who came to help the mother.
Q4. Who does the word ‘him’ refer to in line no. 3?
Ans: ‘Him’ refers to the scorpion.
Q5. Why does the poem begin with the poet remembering the night?
Ans: It was a night when superstition made his mother suffer from a scorpion sting, which she could have escaped with proper medicine. The poet, a child then, witnessed the superstitious face of his society, and the memory stayed with him.
Q6. When did the Mother find relief?
Ans: The mother found relief after twenty hours, when the pain finally stopped.
English Workshop
1. After reading the poem, complete the following. What happens? There are three main parts of the poem. Do you know what they are about? The first one is done for you.
Ans:
| Lines | What is happening? |
|---|---|
| 1–7 | The scorpion comes into the home to escape the rain and stings the poet’s mother. |
| 8–33 | These lines deal with the neighbours who came to help. They searched for the scorpion but could not find it. They clicked their tongues and made wishes that the mother’s suffering would decrease and the poison would purify her. |
| 34–48 | These lines deal with the family: the mother twisting and groaning in pain, the father trying every method of treatment (powder, mixture, herb, hybrid, paraffin on the bitten toe), the child watching helplessly, and the holy man performing rites to tame the poison. |
2. Complete the following.
(A) Background/setting of the poem — Type: Rural/Urban. Evidence (Quote lines from the poem)
Ans: Type: Rural.
- (i) To crawl beneath the sack of rice
- (ii) The peasants came like swarms of flies
- (iii) with candles and lanterns
- (iv) shadows on the mud-baked walls
(B) Scorpion — Many images of the scorpion contrast in the opening lines of the poem. Find examples of each and add them to the columns below.
Ans:
| Timid | Dangerous |
|---|---|
| (1) hides beneath a sack of rice (2) Risking the rain, the scorpion comes back | (i) Diabolic, parts with the poison (ii) As the scorpion moved, the poison in Mother’s blood moved |
(C) Imagery — Look at the description of the village peasants. What does the imagery suggest about them?
Ans:
| The Images | What images suggest |
|---|---|
| They came like swarms of flies. | Many people came, having learnt about the sting, to show support, offer prayers and help in the only way they could. |
| They buzzed the name of God. | The name of God was spoken by so many people that it sounded incomprehensible, like the buzzing of insects when many talk at once. |
| They threw giant scorpion shadows on the mud-baked walls. | It shows how far the scorpion had intruded on the lives of the people; the scorpion is what they see all around them. |
| They clicked their tongues. | They wanted to sympathise with the family and to listen for the movement of the scorpion and the spreading venom. |
3. Choose the correct alternative.
Ans:
- 1. The child is afraid but admires — (c) the bravery of his mother
- 2. His father and the villagers panic and hastily suggest — (c) religious remedies to help
- 3. The poet seems to see the villagers as impractical and almost irritating, which suggests that — (b) the poet is critical of religion
- 4. This is a ___ poem as it tells a story — (c) narrative
- 5. Using the first person gives the feeling that it is told from — (a) personal experience
- 6. ‘The scorpion picked on me. And spared my children’ depicts — (c) selfless and unconditional love of mother
- 7. The poem has no rhyme scheme, so it is a perfect example of — (c) Free verse
- 8. The poem is titled ‘Night of the Scorpion’ because, for the major part of the poem — (b) the scorpion is the victor
- 9. The peasants chant the name of God to — (a) nullify the stinging experience
- 10. The click of tongues reflects their ___ to the predicament — (b) collective response
4. From the poem provide evidence for the following:
Ans:
| Stages | Evidence (lines from the poem) |
|---|---|
| (a) the attempts by the peasants to help alleviate the mother’s pain | (i) may your suffering decrease, the misfortunes of your next birth (ii) may the sum of all evil balanced in this unreal world against the sum of good become diminished by your pain |
| (b) the action of these same peasants to kill the scorpion | (i) with candles and lanterns they searched for him (ii) he was not found |
| (c) the reaction of the rational father | my father sceptic, rationalist, trying every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herb and hybrid |
| (d) the various superstitions versus the ‘scientific’ | (i) I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation (ii) after twenty hours it lost its sting |
| (e) evil versus good | (i) the peasants buzzed the name of God a hundred times to paralyse the evil one (ii) may the sum of all evil … become diminished by your pain |
5. Read the poem and complete the table showing the qualities of the father and mother giving sufficient evidences from the poem.
Ans:
| Father | Mother |
|---|---|
| (i) Sceptic and rational — “my father, sceptic, rationalist” (ii) Caring and determined — tried powder, mixture, herb and hybrid (iii) Desperate to help — poured paraffin on the toe and lit it |
(i) Strong, bearing great pain — twisted and groaned, yet survived (ii) Selfless, with unconditional love for her children — thanked God the scorpion picked on her and spared her children |
6. (A) Match the Figures of Speech with the correct definition.
Ans: (1) Metaphor – (b) an implied comparison; (2) Alliteration – (a) the use of the same sound at the beginning of words; (3) Onomatopoeia – (d) a word which resembles the sound it represents; (4) Simile – (c) a comparison between two different things, containing ‘like’ or ‘as’.
(B) Find examples from the poem that contain:
Simile: like swarms of flies
Metaphor: throwing giant shadows on half baked walls
Onomatopoeia: buzzed the name of God, clicked their tongues
Metaphor: throwing giant shadows on half baked walls
Onomatopoeia: buzzed the name of God, clicked their tongues
7. Expand the flow-chart in writing a paragraph in your own words. (Mother → Agony → Fights the venom (of scorpion) → Unable to utter, but groans → Thanks God → Survives)
Ans: The poet remembers the night his mother was stung by a scorpion. She was in terrible agony as she fought the venom, so weak that she could not speak and could only groan. Around her, the villagers clicked their tongues and offered prayers and advice, and the father tried every remedy he knew. For twenty hours she suffered, until the poison finally lost its sting. Once she was well, she thanked God that the scorpion had picked on her and spared her children, showing her selfless love, and she survived.
8. The poet has used various kinds of imagery to create an image which appeal to our senses. Pick out various kinds of imagery and complete the table.
Ans:
| Visual imagery | Tactile imagery (touch) | Sound imagery | Internal sensations, feelings and emotions |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Scorpion crawling beneath a sack of rice | (1) I watched the flame feeding on my mother | (1) Buzzed the name of God | (1) Fear |
| (2) More candles, more lanterns | (2) Father pouring paraffin on the toe | (2) They clicked their tongues | (2) Groaning |
| (3) Peasants came … with candles and with lanterns | (3) Flashed the diabolic tail in the dark room | (3) The peasants came like swarms of flies | (3) Suffering |
9. Write an appreciation of the poem in a paragraph format. (Refer to page no. 5)
Ans: ‘Night of the Scorpion’ by Nissim Ezekiel is a narrative poem in free verse, told in the first person, which gives it the feel of a real childhood memory. The poet uses vivid imagery and figures of speech such as simile, metaphor and onomatopoeia, so that we can almost hear the villagers buzzing the name of God and see their giant shadows on the mud-baked walls. The poem contrasts the superstition of the peasants with the rational but helpless efforts of the father, and it ends by revealing the selfless, unconditional love of a mother who is grateful that her children were spared.
10. Project — Prepare a Presentation (on paper or on a PC) as a piece of reference to other students. Make use of the following points: (1) Title page (2) Introduction of the poet (3) The complete poem (All 48 lines) (4) Learning objectives (5) Style of writing (6) Scorpion lines (1–7) (7) The peasants (8) The poet’s father (9) The poet’s mother (10) Vocabulary (11) Credits (positive aspects)
Ans: Students should do this on their own.