Compare the ways in which the poet presents people in night of the scorpion and one other poem?

Night of the scorpion is a poem about a woman getting stung by a scorpion and the events that follow it. The poem two scavengers… is about the comparison between two garbage men and a couple going to work. Although the two poems sound totally different, they both convey the message about equality in society.

In night of the scorpion the people are peasants. They are religious people. The crowd of peasants have a different religious belief than us. They believe that if they chant about god then this will help cure the mother. They believe that chants will help cure the mother, this is shown by when the peasants said, “with every movement the scorpion made his poison moved in mothers blood.” The father although being a peasant he is not religious like the other peasants, he is a rationalist. Although of his rationalist ways, when he is faced with the possibility of loosing his beloved wife he looses all of his rational thoughts, and tries every conceivable possibility to save his wife. “My father the, 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 on it.” Although the father does not believe in the religious side of the society he tried all of them at the thought of loosing his wife. After all of the events that happened she only was grateful that it took her and not one of her children. The author does not clearly state his opinion of this, but he is clearly affected by it or he would have not mentioned it.

The poem two scavengers… only has descriptions of the two sets of people for comparative purposes. These being the garbage men and the cool couple. The poet might prefer the garbage men, this is due to the words he uses to describe the garbage men. “The garbage men up since four a.m. grungy from their route on the way home.” This shows that the author feels sympathy for the two men, having to do the hard tasks that they do. The final verse suggests that the two sets of people should perhaps not be treated so differently. The cool ...

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The language used in night of the scorpion has a very religious aspect to it. This shows the peasants beliefs in god. The break in the structure before the last 3 lines shows the impression of the child watching the mother, this could be the poet or maybe just an idea, but it shows the watchers horror by details such as “I watched”. This shows the watcher scared and horrified of what is happening.

The language used in two scavengers is used to describe the differences between the two sets of people, for instance the garbage men are wearing red plastic blazers and the cool couple are wearing linen. This is used to show the difference between the two people. The poet’s attitude is shown in the last section, “across the small gulf in this high sea of democracy” this shows that the poet thinks that although the garbage men’s role in society is small, society would not function if it were not there.

Although night of the scorpion has a clear narrative and is told in a chronological sequence it is not as appealing as scavengers in the sense that it has no clear political message and it is difficult to relate to, as it is a primitive culture. Two scavengers on the other hand has no narrative, it is only a freeze-frame, it is lacking in emotion and has no sensible structure, but it has a clear political message which makes it much more appealing and it shows the economics of democracy in a modern society.

I prefer two scavengers because it has a political message which has a real need to be listened to because in our modern culture we neglect the little people in life that make our society what it is. The poem itself appeals to me more as it has lots of description and comparison in it, which helps put the message of the poet across to the reader.

Gareth Monk