Assisi Flashcards
What are the wider themes of Assisi?
Irony
Hypocrisy of the church
Inner beauty
Outer beauty
What is Assisi about?
MacCaig going to the religious town Assisi where he sees a beggar and witnesses the hypocrisy of the church.
What does MacCaig refer to the beggar as?
A dwarf
How many stanzas are there?
3
What does MacCaig mean when he says “tiny twisted legs from which
sawdust might run,”?
line 3-4
Visual imagery is used to show that the beggar is very deformed, small and physically disabled.
What does MacCaig show when he says “outside the three tiers of churches built
in honour of St Francis,”?
line 5-6
Shows the irony of the beggar sitting outside and not being helped the church built for saint Frances, going against his teachings.
What does MacCaig mean when he says “ whom
he had the advantage
of not being dead yet.”?
line 7-9
The poet uses word choice of “yet” to emphasise that he’s not dead yet but he will eventually die.
What tone is being used when MacCaig says “I understood The explanation and The cleverness.”? line 15-17
A disappointed tone
What does MacCaig mean when he says “ they who had passed
the ruined temple outside,”?
Line 20-21
The word choice of “ruined temple” show that people are ignoring and being disrespectful to the beggar who is broken from not being looked after/treated properly.
What does MacCaig show when he says “Grazie in a voice as sweet
as a child’s when she speaks to her mother”?
line 25-26
The use of a simile shows that even though the beggar may not look like it and be in immense pain, he’s still very polite, innocent and kind.
What does the use of extended metaphors tell us in “A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,
fluttered after him as he scattered
the grain of the World.”?
line 18-20
MacCaig is using an extended metaphor to compare the tourists to a bunch of chickens, They’re only motivated by food and they’re being ignorant and ‘blind’ of the grater issues.
What is ironic in “A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto to make his frescoes tell stories that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God”? line 10-14
The priest is explaining something that is supposed to be self-explanatory as well as he is not following the teachings from the stories.
name a quote that uses juxtaposition
“they who passed the ruined temple outside”
line 20-21
What is the purpose of the caesura in “suffering
of His Son.”?
line 14-15
It makes you think, why did Jesus go through all that pain for his believers if the church just wasn’t going to stay true to his teachings?
What is the structure of the poem?
Cyclical - starts and then returns to the beggar being the focus.
