Department of English

1. Department of English 4th Sem (general) English,Class taken by Sri krishnadasSinha .

2. Nissim Ezekiel’s Night of the scorpion

3. About the poet • Born in Bombay in 1924 • Comes of a jewish family • Both his parents are teachers • Stayed in England from 1948-1952 and returned to India in 1952 • Retired as Professor and Head of the Deptt of english at the Bombay Univ. • Recipient of the Title Padmashri Award

4. Nissim Ezekiel’s Works • A Time to Change • Sixty Poems • The Third • The Unfinished Man • The Exact Name • Hymns in Darkness • Latter Day Psalms

5. Introduction • The poem has been taken from N. Ezekiel’s volume of poems entitled ‘The Exact Name ‘ which was published in 1965. The speaker in the poem narrates an incident of how the poet’s mother was stung by a scorpion one rainy night .

6. Central Idea The poem describes the reaction of the neighbours and the poet’s father when his mother was stung by a scorpion . The poem is the contrast between the superstitious view of the neighbours and the rationalistic attitude of the father of the speaker .

7. Summary of the poem • The speaker’s mother was stung by a scorpion one rainy night.After stinging her ,the scorpion had swiftly moved away from her and gone out into the rain .

8. The efforts of the neighbours to relieve the woman’s pain • The neighbourshad come to the woman to relieve her of her pain if they could . • They chanted the name of God again and again in order to nullify the effect of the scorpion . • They began to search for the scorpion in order to kill it . • It is their general belief that with every movement of the scorpion ,the poison into the woman’s blood would also move . • The neighbours regarded the scorpion as the EVIL ONE

9. The efforts of the poet’s father • The speaker’s father was a man with a scientific attitude to life . • He applied a kind of herb to his wife’s flesh and even pour a little paraffin over the affected part .

10. The streak of irony • Both the neighbours and the poet’s father tried their level best to assuage the woman’s pain . • In fact ,the woman’s pain subsides naturally after the long 20 hours of suffering .

11. The woman thanks God for sparing her children • At last, after long 20 hours ,the effect of the sting ends . • The woman thanks God that the scorpion chooses to sting her and not her dear children .