"Night of the Scorpion," by Nissim Ezekiel, is a narrative
poem that includes several striking images. These images can be interpreted as
symbols.
The poem begins by telling that "Ten hours / of
steady rain had driven him [the scorpion] / to crawl beneath a sack of rice." Later,
the poet clearly identifies the scorpion as "the Evil One." The scorpion's hiding
beneath a sack of rice can now be seen as a symbol of the evil that is hidden in various
places in the world and in ourselves.
The peasants who come
to help the narrator's mother are depicted as being little more than powerless insects
themselves:
The peasants came like swarms of
flies
and buzzed the name of God a
hundred
times
Later,
the peasants are again compared to powerless insects:
More candles, more lanterns,
more
neighbors,
more
insects...
In contrast to the
superstitious peasants, the narrator's father represents rational modernity: "My father,
sceptic, rationalist." In this time of crisis, however, the father's rationalism is
ineffective, and he resorts to incantations and folk
remedies:
[My father] 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.
These images, among
others, appeal to the reader's senses, and help bring to life the poem's symbolic
meanings.
No comments:
Post a Comment