Compare the way people are presented in Night of the Scorpion and one other poem in cluster 1 of the Anthology. (27 marks)

You should write about:

  • Which people are presented in both poems, what is their relationship;
  • How the writer makes the reader feel about the situation they are in;
  • What you think about they way the people live.

People are presented differently in ‘Night of the Scorpion’ and ‘Blessing’ but there is also a sense that they are connected by their poverty and their acceptance of danger.

In [1]‘Night….’ the [2]poet, as the [3]protagonist, remembers the night his mother was stung by a scorpion. The mother is [4]presented as somebody who is at the centre of a ritual. For me it is as if the scorpion’s sting is used as an excuse by the ‘holy men’ of the village to test their ability to heal. I get the impression that Ezekiel is bitter about the way the village ‘elders’[5] seem to thrive on his mother’s[6] pain and this is in contrast to the way he presents his father as a rationalist and ‘sceptic’. The poem presents the people of the village in two ways:[7] the old and the new. The old is represented by use of potions and chanting or tongue ‘clicking’ and the new through representation of the father. Even he however has to revert to using ‘herbs’ and pouring ‘paraffin’ perhaps this is because panic and love overtakes rational thought . The poet’s reference towards the end of the poem to time is important and contrasts sharply with the frenetic pace at the start of the poem. Indeed, the pace of the poem perhaps simulates the scorpion’s poison sting searing through the body at the beginning gradually slowing to a stop at the end of the poem. The poet presents his mother as grateful that this happened to her rather than her children which perhaps is what any mother would feel. There is a sense of ritual in this poem as there is in ‘Blessing’[8]

[9]The villager’s in ‘Blessing’ are presented as worshiping a god[10] ‘water’. For them the ‘silver crashing to the floor’ is like a [11]beneficent god answering their prayers. Here euphoria, for the few minutes that the pipe has burst, is total. This is a poem of the senses and Dharker uses the sound and almost tangible touch of the water to present the joy of the villagers. The religious imagery permeating the poem shows how important water is to the village.

[12]In a similar way to ‘Night…’ the pace of the poem is dictated by the frenetic activity of the villagers. At the beginning the echo of a single drop of water on a ‘tin mug’ contrasts sharply with cascading ‘Blessing’ at the end. In ‘Night…’ the imagery of the scorpion against the mud baked walls gives a sense of impending doom for the people, an ever present danger. In ‘Blessing’ the danger is one of drought and of there being ‘never enough’ water. The similarities of both villages coping with the danger of insect bites or lack of water contrasts with the ‘western’ notion of danger. [13]In conclusion people in both poems are presented as coping with danger, suffering and the poverty of rural life.

Compare the way people are presented in Night of the Scorpion and one other poem in cluster 1 of the Anthology. (27 marks)

The presentation of people in Night of the scorpion and blessing is different but sometimes the same.

In night… people are presented as caring very much for the mother there is a real sense in this poem that the poet loves his mother and is watching all the people of the village caring for her. His father is the one who I think cares the most and he does lots of things to help such as use ‘herbs and powders’. He even tries to burn the sting out and this must have both hurt the mother and the father because it must of been difficult to pour paraffin on the sting and burn the one he loves. There is also a sense of the whole village coming together to help the mother, the poem uses lots of poetic language and he uses imagery well. I can imaging the shadow on the wall of the mud hut and the shadow being the one thing that the villagers are frightened of. I also think the poem is like a prayer. There are quite a few lines which begin with the word ‘MAY…’ which is the way a poem starts.

Blessing is also like a prayer and is very religious. The poet uses words such as kindly god, congregation and blessing to show that the water bursting pipe is like the best thing that ever happened to the village and is like a god giving the villagers something. The poet also compares water as drops and water as gushing and pouring. The poet also uses imagery like in Nightwhere he shows the excitement of children dancing in the street because of the water.

I like both poems and they both show what it must be like to live in Africa and India. Both poems are about the difficulty in these countries to live and survive. They both have danger in them. They both present people differently. Night is longer than blessing but they are about the same thing.

Sorry I ran out of time…….

Make ten points, using footnotes that the writer could improve on in the next examination.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]