Night of the Scorpion – page 9 Indian culture Poet tells the story of the terrible time when his mother was bitten by a scorpion & nearly died He was only a child, helpless, watching as no-one could do anything to save her They tried the best they could- religion, superstition, desperation & common sense There was no chance of any medical help- they lived in a remote primitive village in India

Poem is a narrative- tells a story What is the story? Rain for 10 hours, scorpion escapes into house, under some sacks of rice Bites mother! Such bites are deadly! Then it runs out again- Local villagers come running – ‘peasants came like swarms of flies’

What is the story? Then- The peasants prayed-’buzzed the name of God’ They brought candles to catch the scorpion- thinking if they caught & killed it she would be ok Peasants ‘clicked their tongues’- like calling a dog to come to you- they wanted the scorpion to kill it Then they started praying- ‘May the sins of your previous birth be burned away’- showing they were believers in reincarnation

Then- They sat around her as she lay on the floor, continuing to pray More & more people came, trying to find the scorpion, pray & offer support Still it rained Mother was ‘twisted’ in agony on the floor, every one helping the best they could His dad tries to help – he’s a ‘sceptic, rationalist’ Dad doesn’t believe in the spiritual, religious mumbo-jumbo & tries to do something- anything!

Dad tries any remedy he can think of- Pours paraffin on the bite & sets light to it Puts on ‘every ..powder, mixture herb and hybrid’ In his desperation the Dad even resorts to praying & cursing, so bad is the situation A holy man comes to ‘perform his rites’- they think she will die

Twenty Hours later- Mother has survived! All she said was- ‘thank God the scorpion picked on me And spared my children.’ Showing that she knew that the children would have had much less resistance to the deadly sting, she would much rather have sacrificed herself than lose a child. Such are the realities of life in such a remote part of the world!

Look for- Imagery, language use belonging to the Indian culture this poem is set in – ‘peasants came buzzing like swarms of flies’ The style of the poem as if it was the people praying – ‘may your suffering decrease’ Repetition of ‘may’, this & that happen

‘the peace of understanding on each face’ The poet as an onlooker The poet was a child, yet vividly remembers the terrible occasion, all the details of the event He was helpless, did nothing, others acted, he watched ‘I watched the flame’ He sees the adults understand the awful seriousness of this, all to common, event in rural India – ‘the peace of understanding on each face’

Structure The poem tells a story, it is a narrative account written as one main verse There is a break at the end for a final, short verse where the mother survives & speaks, an afterthought, a quiet moment of stoicism Stoicism- to accept your lot in life, what awful things have happened to you & move on

Structure Speed- the poem moves quickly in the long first verse, this is to show the speed with which the scorpion bit, the speed of the deadly poison moving through the body & the speed with which people come to help The ending is short, a pause, slow, as if to reflect on the 20 hours it took for the mother to battle & survive, in agony ‘groaning on a mat’ The relief that she has survived & her children were not victims – they most likely would have died

Message? Poet shares a childhood experience which had a traumatic experience on him, yet he did nothing- why? Shows how desperate life in such rural & isolated countries can be – life or death People will cling to what ever they can, faith, superstition, homemade remedies Shows the reader how lucky we are to live in the civilisations we do Poet does not want sympathy or pity, just recognition for the culture he comes from