Poetry and Dwarf Essay

The thought-provoking rime, Assisi, written by Norman MacCaig is based on when MacCaig went to Assisi to call the beautiful perform built in St Francis name. The principal(prenominal) character we read about, a overlook school term outside the church, is exposit in a air which evokes commodious kindness for him. The writer achieves this by forming a vivid description of the midget and exploitation different techniques helping him create discernment for the dominate from the endorser. The first four disceptations of the poem create an image of the eclipse which is non in truth pleasant.The dwarf with his hands on preciselytwards/ Sat, slumped worry a half-filled loot/On tiny twisted legs from which/ Sawdust efficacy run The very first line of the poem is a very direct, uncivil opening statement. The idea of the dwarfs hands macrocosm on vertebral columnwards is so upset that at once the reader starts to condolence the dwarf. Using alliteration in the irr egular line sat slumped situates it seem that the dwarf sees no point in dungeon anymore.The poet uses a simile to describe the way the dwarf was sitting, depicting him as a half filled sack screening that the dwarf had been dehumanized by every genius skirt him, making the writer annoyed that naught is nonicing the dwarf.MacCaig uses a metaphor on the leash and fourth lines of the poem, tiny twisted legs from which proverb dust might run grown an idea of how small and weak the dwarf really is, non being up to(p) to move very far, at that placefore brisk a miserable life in the same place. MacCaig refers back to the dwarf hot the end of the poem, evoking scour off greater sympathy for him. The ruined temple outside, whose eyes/ Wept pus, whose back was higher/ Than his head, whose lopsided mouth/ utter grazie in a voice as gentle/ As a frys when she spoke to her mother/ Or a bird when it spoke/ To St Francis.The poet uses the forge ruined temple to coming into court that the dwarfs appearance is made in Gods image and even though his appearance may be destroyed, inside he is still just a normal man, like everyone else. MacCaig apply the says wept pus creates a very unpleasant picture with the idea of pus coming out of the dwarfs eyes but also a very doleful 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 much(prenominal) a bad physical appearance, the reader does not expect the dwarfs voice to be sweet. Throughout the poem, the dwarf is compared to different state and the church. In the first stanza MacCaig uses juxtaposition among 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 wondrous the church at Assisi is, and how there is a dwarf, with a very miserable life, sitting outside. There is also a perceive or irony in that, even though St Francis strived to help brusque 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 non-Christian priest, a man who is supposed to go out and share the marrow of Gods word. A priest explained/How clever it was of Giotto/ To make his frescoes tell stories/ That would reveal to the illiterate the faithfulness/ Of god and the suffering/ Of his son. I find/ The explanation and/ The cleverness. The word a is utilize by MacCaig to introduce the priest. This indefinite member 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 th e word the which suggests that the poet precept the dwarf as an individual, not like the priest who is just one of many.In this stanza the priest is covering 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 arch tone when he speaks to the tourists, using a tone that suggests that he cherished 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 mention to the second stanza, the writer describes how the tourists were acting.A billing of tourists, clucking contentedly,/ Fluttered after him as he separate/ The grain of the Word. It was they who had passed. Here, the tourists are compared to hens who are clucking, chasing their hold trying to get some grain, in this case Gods word. This refers to the fiction the sewer and the seed. They exi st the seeds that could not grow, who got caught in the thorns or thrown on the path, not understanding Gods word and therefore not suppuration into a healthy crop.The Priest would represent the farmer, sharing 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 impregnable and help people less prosperous than themselves, and yet in the poem, Assisi, the priest, a vocalism 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 sum of what they are meant to be sharing, the true meaning of God, to help others. In conclusion, MacCaig manages to evoke a lot of sympathy for the dwarf. He does this by using detailed descriptions and comparisons between the dwarf and th e church and priest. This makes for an interesting, thought provoking poem.