Assissi Flashcards
“sawdust might run”
word choice – develops monstrous imagery of dwarf Sawdust- very little use- left when work
has been finished - negative associations
“brother of the poor, talker of birds”
metaphor- establishes St. Francis - magical person . saint of animals and the environment- sacrificed his inheritance to live a life of poverty. extravagant church hypocritical
“A priest explained”
irony – a priest usually teacher of God. here, nothing more than a glorified tour guide.
“illiterate”
word choice – whilst idea behind the frescoes was good, appears the very people that would have benefitted from such work are left outside begging for scraps.
“scattered the grain of the Word”
– metaphor – effective climax to extended metaphor of comparing the tourists to chickens. The Word of God being spoken by the priest is being taken in by the tourists, creating an image of a mindless scrambling
to get all the feed as chicken would.
a bird’s when it spoke
to St Francis.
reinforces hypocrisy- he dedicated his entire life to helping people like the
beggar, but now all that remains is the monument which appears to ignore the very
people that St. Francis wanted to help. MacCaig is forcing the reader to assess who is
really the monstrous one in this situation,
