Night of the Scorpion Essay Example for Free

Night of the Scorpion Essay In Vultures and Night of the Scorpion the description used is both vivid and horrific. The descriptions cause the reader to have mixed emotions throughout the poems; the poet changes his narrative perspective on things which in turn affects the reader; this is what makes the poems thought provoking and strange. The name Night of the Scorpion sounds like a scary monster film. This misleads the reader because this poem is not like that at all. Instead of the scorpion being evil, the poet describes the scorpions actions which lead us to feel sorry for it. Ten hours of steady rain had driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice. The word driven suggests that the scorpion had no other choice. He is desperate to be safe and dry, so he crawls beneath a sack of rice. In this part of the poem, we dont see the scorpion as a monster as the title of the poems suggests. The sympathy for the scorpion is contrasted when the scorpion stings the mother. There is some mixed emotion in the reader; because we dont know whether the scorpion is innocent, because he needs somewhere to stay; or is he is evil as the title suggests, because he has unprovokedly stung the mother. Flash reflects the suddenness and sneakiness of the sting. His tail is described as diabolic, which means it is evil and devil like. The neighbours are quite selfish in that they see this as entertainment. The peasants came like swarms of flies. The mother obviously hated them coming to watch her suffer. The neighbours are sympathetic though and try to help the mother. Buzzed the name of God a hundred times to paralyze the Evil One. The idea of them buzzing is proving irritating to the mother, and refers to the idea of swarms of flies. The poet uses capital letters to describe Evil One. This makes the scorpion seem powerful, but in an evil way referring back to the title of the poem. The repetition of the letter P in the alliteration parting with his poison makes the reader feel the powerful and dangerous nature of the sting as the P sounds quick but agonizing. Similarly, the title of the poem Vultures makes the reader predict what the poem is about. In fact, the poem is not intended to be about vultures at all, the vultures are a metaphor for an idea that the poet wants to explore. The idea is that love can be found even in the most evil of beings. The descriptions of the vultures are harsh and frightening. His smooth bashed in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in a dump of gross feathers. Smooth bashed in head, is juxtaposition because it is impossible for something to be smooth and bashed in at the same time. A pebble on stem rooted in a dump of gross feathers, is a metaphor which is trying to giving the message that the vulture is just a thing with no important significance. Throughout the poem, the poet is giving the message of death, war and violence using very strong descriptive imagery. Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things in its bowel. The corpse in the trench is referring to a soldier who has died in a war trench. The alliteration in the first few lines helps set a negative tone. Drizzle of one despondent dawn. The drizzle brings the idea of rain, which refers to unhappiness. Despondent is bringing the idea of depression, despair, and hopelessness. Dawn is early in the day, meaning that nobody is around which brings the idea of loneliness. The hard accentuation of the D is ringing through these opening lines; the D is also referring to the idea of death, which this poem is revolving around. A vulture perching high on broken bone of a dead tree. The poet has personified the tree by giving it bones. Broken bones, is supporting the idea of war, where there are epic injuries and death. Sunbreak, means sunset. But the poet has used this word as a substitute to bring the idea of sadness; because even the sun which is stereotypical of being happy is sad and is breaking. There is no anticipation that this will be a happy or sunny poem and yet, unexpectedly, the vulture inclines his bashed in head to settle affectionately against his mate. The vulture is clearly not put off by the surrounding environment. This one description of love is immediately followed by more images of the repulsive and revolting as the eating habits of the birds are described vividly and stomach churningly. Both poems use unexpected changes of mood and dimension to engage the reader with the ideas of the poems. We start off feeling sympathy for the scorpion, but we are left thinking that this really is a diabolical creature. With the vultures, we feel that they represent something depressing and violent and yet we are surprised by the affection between the two birds. Both poets use descriptions of places and the activities carried out in them to develop the ideas explored in the poems. In Night of the Scorpion, the description of the activity of the neighbours makes the reader feel irritated by them, even though they are said to be there to help the mother. They are described in a way that makes them seem annoying like flies. The peasants came like swarms of flies This simile is continued, they buzz and fuss and click. The poet is trying to make the reader feel truly annoyed with them, by using strong imagery. This irritation is surprising to the reader because the neighbours are trying to help, but possibly a bit too enthusiastically. They bring equipment with them. More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours. The poet has deliberately made this into a type of list, because lists are annoying, which contrasts the neighbours. This repetition of more also helps the reader to feel that the neighbours are relentless and irritating as they try to help the bitten mother, because the help is gaining no results, so even more people is just plain annoying. The lack of sympathy from the poet can be shown in the repetition of they said.