Compare the methods Imtiaz Dharker and Nissim Ezekiel use to present a dramatic event in both poems
In both poems there are clear signs of a dramatic convention, and they both use religious imagery effectively ‘blessing’ often refers to god: ‘the voice of a kindly god’, as if the pipe bursting was an act sent from god. On the other hand ‘Night of the Scorpion’ has more of a tribal feel to it and spiritual incantations, praying and chanting as if the scorpion were a spirit and they were trying to contact it.
Firstly, ‘The night of the Scorpion’ is the story set on a mother being stung by a scorpion, who’s story then gets told by her son, the poem is therefore, in third person. The poem is set into two stanzas; the first contains 45 lines and the second only 3. I imagine Ezekiel did this to create the image of pandemonium and panic, everybody trying all these incantations to heal this woman. The poem contains quite a lot of chanting, the use of repetition is used throughout: ‘may he’ (referring to the scorpion), ‘may you’ (referring to the mother), this creates a very clear image of a cult chanting these words to try and ease the sting. The first sentence is in first person and is full of activity: ‘I remember the night my mother was stung by a scorpion’ this makes you initially feel as though the scorpion is the demon in the poem, not only does this quote make you feel this way but so does the title: ‘Night of the Scorpion’ it’s very deceptive and leads us to believe it’s a frightening tale about the scorpion, these initial judgments are declined when we read on to find that the scorpion is not, in fact, a villain: ‘ten hours of steady rain had driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice’ this will almost make the reader feel sorrow and despair towards the scorpion. By repeating ‘they said’ throughout the poem, several times, is making the poem sound like a song, and this particular bit is like the chorus. Nissim’s father is usually skeptic but in a sudden panic ‘tries every curse and blessing’ to help save his wife. By using only 3 lines in the second stanza it, in a sense, relieves the reader and calms the whole situation, and better still after all that pain there is still something to be grateful about: ‘Thank god the scorpion picked on me and spared my children’, her poignant pain was over, and she was overall very grateful towards the scorpion in the fact that it didn’t sting her children.
