Sunday 22 March 2009

Assisi Essay

The following is a confident Standard Grade essay which covers most of the poem's important points.

Question -

Choose a poem which left a powerful impression on you. Show how the poet uses techniques to create a memorable experience for the reader.

Structure -

  1. Introduction
  2. Summary
  3. First impressions of the dwarf
  4. Juxtaposition - of the dwarf, and the church
  5. Sarcasm - 'he had the advantage of not being dead yet'
  6. Irony - description of the tourists
  7. The poem's structure
  8. Conclusion

“Assisi” by Norman McCaig is a thought provoking poem which leaves the reader with a powerful impression of both a person and a place. McCaig uses several techniques which contribute to the reader’s opinion of the person and the place.

A disabled beggar sits slumped outside the beautiful church of St Francis in Assisi which is located in Italy. The priest and those tourists who are so admiring of Giotto’s frescoes ignore him. But for the poet, it is not the beautiful art and architecture which creates a vivid memory of his visit to Assisi, but the disabled man.

McCaig instantly illustrates to the reader the beggar's “abnormality”. He then goes on later in the poem to describe this poor man’s disabilities in more depth. Due to the use of themes and various techniques the reader is left with a powerful impression of the beggar:

Slumped like a half-filled sack


This simile which is used at an early stage in the poem is very effective as it creates a vivid image of the dwarf in the readers mind and implies that this beggar is shapeless and almost lifeless. The reader is also immediately made aware of the beggars restricting posture. Also in the opening line, the disabled man is referred to as a “dwarf”, a term which in any context is derogatory, demeans the man, and creates the idea that he is “not normal”. This leaves the reader with a very powerful impression due to McCaig’s word choice. The vivid imagery used by the poet suggests ugliness associated with his particular disability.

Norman McCaig uses juxtaposition several times throughout this poem to highlight the abnormality of this poor human. The beggar is noticeably situated outside this extraordinary three tiered church which also adds to the created impression of this helpless beggar:

outside the three tiers of churches built
in honour of St Francis


McCaig’s specific choice of words helps the reader to create a picture of this deformed man. The poet uses brutal language to create a prevailing impression of this man. McCaig’s use of words such as; slump and half filled sack inform the reader that the beggar can not even sit upright because of the deformation of his body. Due to the way in which the poet describes the beggar we immediately feel sympathetic toward this man.

McCaig also states at the end of the first paragraph that the beggar has an advantage of “not being dead yet”. This is a prime example of McCaig’s sarcasm as he thinks that the beggar may be better off dead as he does not have much to live for. This leaves the reader to ponder the dwarf’s poor quality of life when he suggests that he the dwarf has the advantage over St Francis “of not being dead yet”. The poet’s purpose of this opening paragraph is to set up various contrasts, mainly the contrast of ugliness and beauty when the beggar is outside this magnificent church.

The poet also compares these tourists to chickens as he believes they are brain dead and self centred which also creates a vigorous impression. These ignorant tourists are chasing after this priest however they are ignoring this poor dwarf who is begging outside the church which honours St Francis.

A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him as he scattered the grain if the Word.


McCaig also shows irony here as these tourist are chasing this priest who is preaching about St Francis himself, who helped the poor and unfortunate, however these tourists and the priest himself is overlook this unfortunate human outside the church. This deprived man is also isolated from society as he is sitting alone whilst these more fortunate beggars are in a large group. McCaig also chooses these specific words to remind the reader that St Francis is famous for talking to birds however it is the tourist who are listening to the priest like birds in this particular situation.

It was they who had passed the ruined temple outside


This metaphor emphasises the ignorance and hypocrisy toward this disabled man. The reference to “ruined temple” is to draw our attention to the fact that in Christian religious belief, the body is seen as the place where the human spirit or soul is held. This makes the reader wonder if this “ruined temple” had soul. A temple is also a place were you are supposed to go to pay your respects however this ill-fated beggar is receiving no respect and is just being ignored.

The poet decided to structure this poem unusually; however this adds to the readers understanding of the setting and also the impression of this unfortunate dwarf. Norman McCaig starts each verse with reference to a character or a group of people. McCaig deliberately opens each verse with mention to a character or group of people as he is highlighting the lack of contact with the beggar. Notably the poem also opens and ends with the beggar. This is to make sure that the reader is continuously focused on this particular individual. Norman McCaig also uses brutal language at the start of this story however it gets less brutal as the poem progresses. This is also done on purpose as the poet started of the poem on a brutal tone. Also the poem ends with the words “to St Francis” to remind the reader of the irony that the beggar is situated outside this spiritual church but is still being ignored by the tourists.

The poet’s use of metaphor, simile, word choice, structure and other techniques is very effective in creating a negative image of disability for the majority of the poem, and then with one contrasting detail, we can appreciate McCaig’s anger at the hypocrisy of the church. This poem leaves the reader with a powerful impression of this deformed mistreated beggar being ignored by the tourists who are ironically visiting a church in honour of St Francis.

My Comment



Norman MacCaig was an English teacher who used to write poems. He would smoke while he wrote, and once said that few of his poems had ever taken longer than two fags to write.

There are points in this essay when the writer needed to check his work -

these tourists are chasing this priest

This sounds very clumsy. Also look out for the number of times he uses 'Norman McCaig' in the essay. Call him 'Norman MacCaig' (note that it's 'Mac' not 'Mc') once in the introduction, then 'the poet', 'the writer' or just 'MacCaig' thereafter.

3 comments:

  1. Chickens are not "brain-dead". The writer also needs to be much more precise in analysing and using language.

    ReplyDelete
  2. aw why did a take higher english

    ReplyDelete