Question

Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in paragraph format.

Night of the Scorpion
 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 darkroom –
 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 mud-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 all evil
 balanced in this unreal world
 against the sum of good
 become diminished by your pain.
 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 center,
 the peace of understanding on each face. 

More candles, more lanterns, more neighbors,
 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 to tame the
 poison with an incantation.
 After twenty hours
 it lost its sting.

 My mother only said
 Thank God the scorpion picked on me
 And spared my children.
-Nissim Ezekiel

you can use the following points while appreciating the given poem:
 i. Title 
 ii. Poet 
 iii. Theme/Central idea
iv.Rhyme scheme 
v. Figures of speech
vi. Special features (type the poem, imagery, implied meaning if any,etc.)
vii. Favorite lines
viii. Why I like/don’t like the poem. 

Write an appreciation of the poem night of the Scorpion in a paragraph format.

Answer 1

Appreciation of the poem 'The Night of the scorpion'

The poem 'The Night of the scorpion' by Nissim Ezekiel, revolves round the sting of a scorpion that the poet's mother experienced on a rainy night. The poem follows the narrative style of storytelling where an incident is narrated in a free verse having no fixed rhyme scheme. The poem is enriched using various figures of speech such as Alliteration, Antithesis, Hyperbole, Inversion, Metaphor, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Repetition,  Simile, and transferred Epithet. An example of personification from the poem is " I watched the flame feeding on my mother " as the flame is given the human quality of 'feeding'. The poem is a first-person account of how a son(the poet) watches helplessly as his mother suffers from a scorpion's sting. The villagers' blessing and curses, a holy man's chants and the rational husband's experiments cannot bring relief to the poet's mother. It shows how the behaviour of the villages is characterised by their illiteracy and the lack of medical facilities, which thereby results in blind beliefs and superstitions. Nissim Ezekiel's night of the scorpion is a strong yet simple statement on the power of self-effacing love. The ironic twist in the poem comes when in the end the mother who suffered in silence opens her mouth and says "Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children." Yes,  I like this poem because this poem mention the bond between the mother and son.

Answer 2

         The poem "Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel depicts the selflessness and unconditional love of a mother who is stung by a scorpion. It also explains the care and affection of the villagers and their efforts to comfort the pain of the mother. 
        The poem is written in free verse without any rhyme scheme or metre followed throughout the poem. There are many figures of speech e.g. Onomatopoeia and buzzed the name of God a hundred times'. Here, we feel we can actually hear the buzzing of the prayers of the many peasants. The other figures of speech are Metaphor, Alliteration, Simile, Antithesis, etc.
        The special feature of this poem is the imagery. We get a clear and vivid picture of what is happening in the house. In the end, the poet depicts the selfless and unconditional love of a mother, who, even when she is in intense pain, first thinks of her children. The poem is a narrative poem. The use of the first person gives the feeling that it is told from personal experience. My favourite line is: 'Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children'. I like the line because it shows the selflessness and unconditional love of the mother for her children.
          I like the poem because of the imagery and the sensitive ending.