Poetry and Dwarf Essay

The thought-provoking poem, Assisi, written by Norman MacCaig is based on when MacCaig went to Assisi to visit the charming church service building building built in St Francis name. The main character we read about, a shade sitting outside the church, is described in a charge which evokes great sympathy for him. The writer achieves this by forming a vivid interpretation of the overshadow and using diametrical techniques overhauling him create sympathy for the shadow from the lecturer. The first four lines of the poem create an image of the shade which is not very pleasant.The dwarf with his hands on tailwards/ Sat, slumped equal a half-filled sack/On midget twisted legs from which/ Sawdust might run The very first line of the poem is a very direct, blunt gap statement. The whim of the dwarfs hands being on backwards is so affect that at once the reader starts to pity the dwarf. Using alliteration in the routine line sat slumped makes it seem that the dwarf sees n o phase in living anymore.The poet uses a allegory to describe the way the dwarf was sitting, depicting him as a half filled sack covering that the dwarf had been dehumanized by everyone surrounding him, making the writer chafe that nobody is noticing the dwarf.MacCaig uses a metaphor on the third and fourth lines of the poem, tiny twisted legs from which saw dust might run giving an idea of how small and weak the dwarf really is, not being open to move very far, hence living a miserable career in the same place. MacCaig refers back to the dwarf nearer the end of the poem, evoking even greater sympathy for him. The ruined tabernacle outside, whose eyes/ Wept pus, whose back was higher(prenominal)/ Than his head, whose lopsided mouth/ Said grazie in a voice as sweet/ As a childs when she spoke to her amaze/ Or a bird when it spoke/ To St Francis.The poet uses the phrase ruined temple to show that the dwarfs advance into court is made in perfections image and even though his appearance may be destroyed, inside he is still just a normal man, like everyone else. MacCaig using the words wept pus creates a very unpleasant celluloid with the idea of pus coming out of the dwarfs eyes but besides a very sad picture with the idea that the dwarf was crying. Whose back was higher than his head, whose lopsided mouth, the writer says this to, again, accentuate the disturbing appearance of the dwarf, implying that the dwarf has a hunchback.At the end of the stanza, the poet surprises the reader when he uses the simile as sweet as a child as coming from a man with such a bad physical appearance, the reader does not expect the dwarfs voice to be sweet. Throughout the poem, the dwarf is compared to different pile and the church. In the first stanza MacCaig uses juxtaposition between the dwarf and the extraordinary building of the church, at the beginning he introduces the dwarf, and he then describes the church.He shows the comparison of how elaborate and wonderful the church at Assisi is, and how there is a dwarf, with a very miserable life, sitting outside. There is as well a sense or irony in that, even though St Francis strived to help piteous people, so much so that he got a church built in his name, there is still a very poor man sitting outside the church and nobody tries to help him. The second stanza concentrates on the priest, a man who is supposed to render and share the marrow of Gods word. A priest explained/How clever it was of Giotto/ To make his frescoes divide stories/ That would reveal to the illiterate the goodness/ Of god and the suffering/ Of his son. I understand/ The explanation and/ The cleverness. The word a is used by MacCaig to introduce the priest. This enigmatic article makes it seem like the priest is one of many, perhaps in criticism of the church itself, yet when he addresses the dwarf, the poet uses the word the which suggests that the poet saw the dwarf as an individual, not like the priest who is just one of many.In this stanza the priest is showing the tourists around the church, showing them the frescoes that Giotto produced, explaining the word of god in pictures so that the illiterate could understand Gods word. The priest uses a very condescending fortify when he speaks to the tourists, using a tone that suggests that he valued to show off his church and his frescoes because he wanted the tourists to think that the he was very important. At the start of the final stanza, in reference to the second stanza, the writer describes how the tourists were acting.A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,/ Fluttered after him as he scattered/ The grain of the Word. It was they who had passed. Here, the tourists are compared to hens who are clucking, chasing their master assay to get some grain, in this case Gods word. This refers to the allegory the sewer and the seed. They represent the seeds that could not grow, who got caught in the thorns or throw on the path, not understan ding Gods word and therefore not growing into a healthy crop.The Priest would represent the farmer, communion Gods word amongst the tourists. There are many themes in this poem but one of the main themes is the hypocrisy of the church. We see the church as an organisation that we expect to do good and help people less fortunate than themselves, and yet in the poem, Assisi, the priest, a representative of the church completely ignores the dwarf, an example of a poor man who the church should be helping, walking straight past him, not even acknowledging the dwarfs existence.This suggests that the church and also the priest dont understand the meaning of what they are meant to be sharing, the true meaning of God, to help others. In conclusion, MacCaig manages to evoke a wad of sympathy for the dwarf. He does this by using detailed descriptions and comparisons between the dwarf and the church and priest. This makes for an interesting, thought provoking poem.