2024

Night of the Scorpion: A Mother's Silent Benediction

Author(s): Jayantakumar Panda

Abstract

Nissim Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion” is a powerful narrative poem that captures a single traumatic event within a rural Indian household and turns it into a meditation on faith, maternal sacrifice, cultural dualities, and metaphysical meaning. The poem weaves together vivid imagery, free verse structure, and rich symbolism to portray the helplessness of human beings before nature, the collision between superstition and rationalism, and the transcendence of unconditional love. This research explores the poem through multiple lenses—literary aesthetics, structural analysis, philosophical inquiry, and scriptural references from the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Vachanamrut, and other sacred texts. Ultimately, the poem transcends its local setting to evoke universal themes of suffering, karma, purification, and spiritual endurance.