Vultures and Night of the Scorpion

        ‘I remember the night my mother…his poison moved in Mother’s blood, they said.’ The diabolic tail shows the scorpion as a symbol of serious danger and calling it the ‘Evil One’ tells us that in their culture, the scorpion is a devilish figure. The speaker seems to be intimidated by the scorpion, due to its giant shadows and its ability to be scarce. ‘With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in Mother’s blood, they said.’ The poet is saying that the solution is to kill the scorpion, as if they remove the scorpion, they would remove the poison. This makes the scorpion seem even more evil, as even after he has placed the poison within the speaker’s mother, the poison will stay as long as the scorpion stays. Also the poet has written Mother’s with a capital ‘M’ as if she is like a goddess; so in the poet’s eyes the scorpion has poisoned a goddess and not just anyone, making the scorpion much more devilish than before. Unlike with the vultures, the scorpion has no loveable nature; it is pure evil and should not even exist.

        ‘…Thus the Commandant at Belsen…waiting at home for Daddy’s return…’ The vultures are now directly related and compared with this Commandant at Belsen, the Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony. Just like the vultures, the Commandant has a grotesque image, ‘fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils.’ Also like the vultures, the Commandant also has this small affectionate character within him: ‘stop at the wayside sweet-shop and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring.’ It is rather a paradox: the officer that kills discriminately will go off to buy his sweet little children a chocolate, just like the vultures.

        ‘May he sit still, they said…more candles, more lanterns, more neighbours, more insects, and the endless rain.’ The structure of the poem is based on short lines and short clauses and this makes it flow rapidly, like a type of panic and increase in tension. ‘More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours, more insects, and the endless rain.’ everything seems to be piling on and this also increases the panic, as if the heart beat of the poem is increasing with the very small clauses. The endless rain may symbolize an external crying, as if God is crying onto the earth. Unlike the vultures, the scorpion is not directly compared to anything or anyone. It is indirectly compared with the devil though, as if it is an omen upon the people.

        ‘Praise bounteous providence if you will…lodged the perpetuity of evil.’ This stanza is saying that even in great evil, there is a miniscule amount of tenderness. But in the end, the poet tells us that even through the love of your family, in your children will be your own evil.

        ‘My mother twisted through and through…Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children.’ The father of the speaker used very primitive method, showing they were poor, making the scorpion seem more devilish to have stung a poor woman. The panic is truly shown by the speaker’s rational father igniting the mother’s foot. The speaker is shown to be very helpless as all he could do was to watch, and nothing more. Fire is a theme running through much of the poem as the speaker mentions a lot about flames, lanterns and burning, and this relates to the burning in hell and of the devil once more.

        The two poems are quite different even though both speak of a noxious creature. The structure of The Vultures has long sentences and long clauses, showing there is no panic in the poem; there is hardly any punctuation as well, allowing the poem to flow smoothly and gently. Whereas the structure of Night of the Scorpion is with short lines and short clauses making it move quickly and rapidly, in a panic-stricken manner. To compare the two creatures from what we are told in these poems would show that the scorpion is the devil in an insect form, and the vultures are slightly misunderstood birds of prey. The Vultures is a poem about revealing the soft and affectionate side of both vultures and also Nazi officers, and Night of the Scorpion is about revealing the infernal and devilish disposition of the scorpion.