Assisi Flashcards
“The dwarf with his hands on backwards, sat slumped like a half-filled sack”
‘hands on backwards’ - metaphor which creates imagery. Deformed, grotesque figure.
Sibilance - repitition of ‘s’ sound. It creates sounds like sawdust running out of a sack. Simile - creates an image of a man hunched over, crumpled, still, dejected, exhausted.
“on tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run”
‘tiny twisted’ - alliteration. Imagery - deformed, ugly, unnatural
‘sawdust might run’ - the simile comparing the dwarf to a sack is extended into a metaphor. It dehumanises the dwarf and makes him seem worthless.
“outside the three tiers of churches built in hour of St Francis,”
Juxtaposition - the tiny, powerless dwarf is infront of this massive building This shows us the might and power of the church.
“brother of the poor, talker with birds, over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet.”
‘brother of the poor’ - this gigantic, massive building is supposed to represent a man who chose to live his life in poverty. This doesn’t represent his actions when he was alive. It’s ironic.
‘the advantage of not being dead yet’ - the only thing that the dwarf has left is his life. The implication is that he’d be better off dead. This creates a nasty, sarcastic tone. The word ‘yet’ suggests the dwarf doesn’t have long to live.
“A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto”
‘a priest’ - priests are supposed to be compassionate and caring, but this once is ignoring the beggar.
Giotto was an artist. Frescoes are a type of painting. The priest is more interested in showing off his knowledge than helping the dwarf.
“to make his frescoes tell stories that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God and the suffering of His Son.”
The priest isn’t showing the ‘goodness’ that God preaches. He is doing nothing to help the suffering dwarf.
The pictures show people who can’t read what is happening in the Bible, so they can understand God’s teaching without reading his words.
“I understood the explanation and the cleverness.”
The tone here is nasty. MacCaig has no time for the priest. He disapproves and his sarcasm shows how hypocritical the priest is. Intelligence without kindness has no value to MacCaig.
“A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the Word.”
Alliteration, metaphor - the poet feels contempt for the tourists as they are also showing no compassion for the dwarf. They are compared to chickens - dumb, annoying, just following, not thinking for themselves.
“It was they who had passed the ruined temple outside,”
‘they’ suggests MacCaig doesn’t identify with these people.
‘ruined temple’ - metaphor, this is the dwarf. He is ‘ruined’ but was once beautiful. A temple is usually somewthing attractive used for worship. Helping him would be like worshipping St Francis.
“whose eyes wept pus, whose back was higher than his head, whose lopsided mouth said Grazie”
Reminds us that the dwarf is ugly/deformed.
‘grazie’ - the dwarf is grateful for any help. He’s not bitter to those who do nothing about his situation.
“in a voice as sweet as a child’s when she speaks to her mother”
This is the only time the dwarf is referred to pleasantly. He has a lovey voice. The simile comparing him to a child shows us that he is innocent, naive, hopeful.
“or a bird’s when it spoke to St. Francis”
St. Francis believed all creatures should receive compassion and kindness, no matter who they were or how insignificant society thought them. The comparison with a bird emphasises this.
