Assisi By Norman McCaig

Context 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. St Francis helped the poor and unfortunate. He is famous for talking to birds The spirit of St Francis is not found inside the church, or in the priest but in the inner beauty of the dwarf.

Lines 1-4 “dwarf” – derogatory term, demeans and dehumanises the beggar. (Whose term? Who calls him this? - the tourists and priest choose to ignore him.) “sat, slumped like a half-filled sack” – has given up, is tired of begging and of his day-to-day existence, helpless – possibly ill and suffering. Alliteration sounds like something deflating “like a half-filled sack” – vivid image (simile), emphasises his exhaustion/dejectedness and lack of energy, poorly dressed, continues the idea of collapsing.

Lines 1-4 “Tiny, twisted legs” - alliteration emphasises pity for the beggar’s disability, - word choice of “twisted” emphasises how disabled he is. “from which/sawdust might run” - dehumanises the beggar - is tragic - makes him sound more like an object than a man. MacCaig is expressing a discomfort with the idea of a human life taking such a shape, and an anger at any God of goodness who has such a being as part of His creation (overturned in last stanza).

Lines 5-7 Contrast between the broken figure of the beggar and the grandness of the church of Assisi. Irony of the situation: people ignore the “tiny” beggar in their rush to spend money in the church - MacCaig sees as disgusting, - also sad: they care about the church but not the beggar. Might expect the Church to look after the beggar but they don’t seem to care. The dwarf symbolises the helpless poor, represents the suffering that is still going on throughout the world. We are more concerned with commercialism and appearance than looking after the needy in society.

Lines 7-9 “over whom” onwards –tone becomes angry and cynical St Francis has been dead for hundreds of years yet the people visiting the town are more interested in spending money on visiting the church built in his honour than helping the deformed and desperate beggar. “advantage of not being dead yet” – irony: this is the only thing the beggar has going for him. - sad: would the beggar be better off dead than living this kind of hopeless existence? “yet” – reminds us life is fleeting. In the beggar’s weak state, his life may also be very short.

Lines 10-17 MacCaig’s anger develops. He writes in angry, cynical, disappointed tones – “the goodness of God” is questionable when the church allows such suffering on its doorstep. Sees the church as greedy – more interested in boasting about themselves and getting people to believe in their theories than in helping the beggar outside. “clever” is emphasised (sneakiness rather than intelligence). It’s about the commercialisation of the church – selling its stories and making money. They are distracting the tourists with the rich art work of the church, so that they don’t see the beggar and the real need in society that he represents.

Lines 10-17 These stories may have been well told, but clearly were not effective in teaching people about the way we should behave with one another. First sentence is long and complex; contrasted with the short compound sentence that follows. –reflect that while the “frescoes” and the priest’s description of them are complex and embellished, in contrast the short sentence shows that the church fails to live up to the simple truth and duty of helping others.

Lines 18-20 MacCaig condemns mankind’s inhumanity and the Church’s hypocrisy. His contempt for the tourists is suggested by the extended metaphor where he compares them to chickens. ‘fluttered’ – mindless. They believe what they are told. ‘clucking contentedly’ the alliteration of the ‘c’ imitates the sound of chickens. It also suggests they are part of a crowd and have no individual thoughts. ‘scattered the grain of the Word’ - They are content as they are untroubled by the sight of the beggar whom they pass as they are too busy listening to the priest as he speaks.

Lines 18-20 Allusion to the Parable of the Sower and the pun on ‘Word’. Metaphor - suggests the tourists are greedily picking up his every word in much the same way chickens pick up their food. The pun refers to both the priest’s words and the ‘Word’ of God. This Word is not what he is spreading but should be. Just as the tourists unquestioningly accept everything the priest says, the Church expects the faithful to do the same with its dogma. “Feeding” the tourists with attention rather than the poor as St Francis would have wanted. They in turn “feed” the church with money and faith. In the meantime, the beggar still sits outside hungry.

Lines 20-21 The syntax emphasises the position of ‘they’ in the sentence Separates the poet from the tourists and indicates his attitude to the beggar is different from theirs. The juxtaposition of the tourists in the Church with the metaphor of the beggar as ‘a ruined temple’ highlights the apathy and selfishness of society. Religious imagery is used throughout the verse. We question what really is the “ruined temple” – the beggar or the church that has lost its moral way. They look at frescoes depicting the suffering of Christ while ignoring the suffering of the beggar.

Lines 20-21 His tone suggests his contempt at their hypocrisy and self- centredness. “ruined temple” - in Christian religious belief, the body is seen as the place where the human spirit or soul is held. Does the beggar have a soul? Or is it just his outside that is “ruined”? Irony: a temple is also a place where you are supposed to go to pay your respects however this ill-fated beggar is receiving no respect and is just being ignored.

Lines 21-28 “eyes wept pus” – again suggesting the dwarf is disgusting to look at Ambiguity about the dwarf’s character - suggests that the dwarf is ugly inside as the eyes are the windows of the soul. “voice as sweet as a child’s” - despite all the horrific deformities of the dwarf, he has inner beauty which is unexpected and creates an anticlimax.

Lines 21-28 The fact that the dwarf says “Grazie” suggests that he is grateful for life; something which is also surprising considering his horrific deformities. ignorant tourists will never realise his beauty since they simply walk past in search of more obvious, superficial beauties Dwarf is outwardly revolting but inwardly beautiful Who or what is the real ugliness here?

Structure starts each stanza with reference to a character or a group of people - highlighting the lack of contact with the beggar. the poem opens and ends with the beggar - makes sure that the reader is continuously focused on this particular individual. 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. 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.

Themes Hypocrisy Religion Man’s inner nature Inward nature versus outward appearance Emphasises the importance of compassion and understanding

Contrast Contrast between the ugly, deformed beggar and the elaborate church he is sitting in front of. This emphasises the ugliness of the beggar and makes him seem even more grotesque 2. Contrast between the actions of St Francis and the actions of religious people in the modern world. His teachings have not been followed and the dwarf has been labelled as a freak and isolated from society and charity 3. Contrast between what the priest preaches and what he practices . He scattered the grain of the Word but did not eat it himself. He missed the message of love thy neighbour in the Bible. 4. Contrast between the dwarf’s appearance and reality. The sweet voice demonstrates that the beggar is, in some way, good despite all of the prejudgements made about him by the priest and the tourists