Techniques of Night of the Scorpion Poem

 In Ezekiel's Night Of The Scorpion we meet the poem  in free verse.  In comparison with the Eliot's Preludes  there is a minor difference between Eliot and Ezekiel too. Eliot in keeping with the traditional practice of writing poetry, begins his lines with capital letters. Ezekiel does not do that. He uses capital letters only for the beginning of sentences. This is a new practice initiated to poetry in the twentieth century. That however is only a minor structural difference.

Another  difference we can observe is the absence of stanzas in the poem. The whole incident is narrated in one chunk of a passage. Only the mother's comment, which does not form a part of the incident is given separately. This is right because them other's comment is the only lyrical part of the poem. It carries the mother's love with it. The rest of the poem is narrative. And also poem has understandable absence of regular rhythm and rhyme.  The poem is not lyric. It is narrative. As we see poet taken care to distance himself. Poem tells a story. The story about incident in past flashback by an adult. Narrative style shows adult's present views. This poem has simple and conversational language mingle with characters. Free verse style carries throughout whole poem.

This poem carries metaphor technique in the line "scorpion is the evil '' and carries simile in the line " like swarms of flies ". Poem starts with "I''. It means first person narration. Also '' stung by a scorpion, parting poison, diabolic tail in dark'' are examples for alliteration. Poem has vivid visual imageries as well. The words like candle, lantern, buzzed, hundred carries anaphora technique. Sun baked walls symbolize hidden evil force. Rain is a symbol of regular pain within mom. So, poem has a powerful language.

Next, peasants symbolizes unity of a society and agrarian culture. The efforts they take to cure the mother symbolize traditionalistic. Apart from visual imagery carries throughout the whole poem tactile imagery also there to adorn poem and appealing the sense of touch.

'' My mother twisted through and through, I watched the flame feeding''

And also using auditory imagery and onomatopoeia is a strong approach towards reader's sense of hearing. '' They clicked their tongues'' ,buzzed . And also scheduled rhyme scheme not available in this poem. We can call it as absence of rhyme. The words like evil-good, previous-next suggest antonyms to the poem. The poem carries irony. Father did not have trust whether mother will cure or not. But he never stops trying medication. And also mother's response vanished the dangerous situation ironically. Even though she is in a hard situation she thinks about her children very much. It carries irony itself.

''spared  my children''