Assisi (poetry) Flashcards
Assisi stanza 1
The dwarf with his hands on backwards sat, slumped like a half-filled sack on tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run, outside the three tiers of churches built in honour of St Francis, brother of the poor, talker with birds, over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet.
Assisi stanza 2
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 and the suffering of His Son. I understood the explanation and the cleverness.
Assisi stanza 3
A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,
fluttered after him as he scattered
the grain of the Word. It was they who had passed
the ruined temple outside, whose eyes
wept pus, whose back was higher
than his head, whose lopsided mouth
said Grazie in a voice as sweet
as a child’s when she speaks to her mother
or a bird’s when it spoke
to St Francis.
Assisi structure
Has a cyclical structure, which goes from the beggar to the priest to the tourists and then back to the beggar.
Assisi key themes
The inner beauty within outer affliction of the dwarf
The hypocrisy of the churches teachings and the priests teachings.
The irony of the tourist and the priest
The contrast between the churches and the dwarf
The dwarf with his hands on backwards
“The dwarf,” and “with his hands on backwards,” are metaphors, the metaphor of dwarf is saying that the beggar is small because he is being compared to a dwarf which is a small mythical creature, the metaphor of his hands on backwards highlights the fact that the beggar is deformed, and emphasises how extreme these deformities by using the words on backwards and telling us he has problems with his hands which are things you need for everyday life.
“Sat slumped,” is visual imagery and alliteration, the alliteration is emphasising the “s” sound and the visual imagery is that the beggar looks like an s shape when he is curled up slumping on the ground.
Sat slumped like a half filled sack
“Sat slumped,” is visual imagery and alliteration, the alliteration is emphasising the “s” sound and the visual imagery is that the beggar looks like an s shape when he is curled up slumping on the ground.
“Like a half filled sack,” is a simile used to compare the beggar to a sack and make him seem soft and empty, as well as giving the physical attributes of being slumped over.
On tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run
“Tiny twisted legs,” is an example of alliteration and visual imagery because the repetition of the T sound emphasises it and the visual imagery is that the letter t also looks like the tiny twisted legs and highlights the severity of the deformities.
“From which sawdust might run,” is an extended metaphor leading on from the half filled sack which implies he is broken because there is sawdust running out of the sack and links back to the image of being slumped over.
Outside the three tiers of churches built in honour of saint Francis,
“Outside the three tiers,” is a metaphor which is used to compare the churches to a wedding cake, when you have three tiers on a wedding cake it is usually a fancy wedding so what MacCaig is saying is that the churches look wonderful and very special.
“Outside the three tiers of churches built,” juxtaposition is used on the beggar and the churches to make the beggar seem less fortunate and make you want to pity him. The churches on the other hand are made to look much grander and emphasise how much money must have been put into these buildings.
“Built in honour of saint Francis,” used to show the hypocrisy and irony of the churches because saint Francis was someone who cast away his riches to help others in need and yet this poor deformed beggar is sitting here with no help.
Brother of the poor talker of birds
“Brother of the poor, talker of birds,” is word choice used to tell anyone who doesn’t know that Saint Francis is the patron Saint of helping the poor because he gave up his riches to help them and the patron Saint of nature. This also shows the hypocrisy of the church
Over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet
“Not being dead yet,” word choice, used to show how much help the beggar needs because his only positive is that he isn’t dead yet, which in turn shows how little he has to live for at this point.
A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto to make his frescoes tell stories to the illiterate of the goodness of god and the suffering of His son.
“Goodness of god and the suffering of his son.” Is an example of caesura which is making the reader reflect on the harsh punishment of Jesus and the goodness of god, it also makes you question why is the priest explaining this to the tourists instead of helping the beggar and carrying out their teachings. It makes the reader realise that the priest is distracting the tourists from the beggar.
I understood the explanation and the cleverness
“Explanation and cleverness,” and “a priest explained,” are examples of repetition which is done because MacCaig wants to show to the reader that the priest is only talking about these things to distract the tourists from the beggar and note that MacCaig understands what the priest is doing.
A rush of tourists clucking contentedly
“Rush,” word choice used to describe the nature in which they move, quickly and with a sense of urgency.
“Clucking contentedly,” is a metaphor used to compare the tourists to chickens to give the impression the tourists had low intelligence and were just following the priest round with no awareness of what was going on around them.
Fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the Word.
“Fluttered after him as he scattered the grain,” Extended metaphor referring back to the image of the tourists being compared to chickens and showing that the tourists are “eating out of the priests hand,” because the priest is telling them about god and they are just blindly following him.
“Scattered the grain of the Word,” is used to develop the themes of the irony and hypocrisy of the priest because caesura is used to make you reflect on the fact that this priest is purposely leading the tourists away from the beggar to avoid bad publicity.
