Critical Evaluation-Assisi
A poem that I have been studying recently is Assisi by Norman McCaig, which I found very interesting to read because it made a statement which relates to our world today even though the poem was wrote about thirty or forty years ago. The poem has lots of ideas including effective figures of speech, good choice of words, important images and irony. The statement that McCaig makes is, where ever there is great wealth it always exists along side great poverty. The poem is set in Assisi in Italy around the 1970’s were all the rich tourists are coming in hundreds from all different countries far and wide to see the frescoes painted by Giotto in Assisi’s huge cathedral. McCaig mainly focuses on the dwarf outside of the three-tier cathedral built in honour of St. Francis. McCaig then proceeds to the priest guiding the tourists around the cathedral telling them the history of Giotto’s frescoes and how they individually teach people the goodness of God and the suffering of his son. McCaig uses effective littery techniques to describe the tourists and to describe the dwarf. He then goes on to explain that the tourists are not studying the frescoes and are just there to boast about being there. Then . . .
Francis, brother of the poor, talker with birds, over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet. McCaig says this because the dwarf has been living around the huge cathedral for many years and is now wearing away. McCaig goes on to give more details of the dwarfs appearance: “whose eyes, wept pus, whose back was higher than his head, whose lopsided mouth” All of these properties of the dwarf are very brutal, McCaig says this to make the reader feel pity for the dwarf but surprisingly McCaig goes on to tell how the dwarf had a voice as sweet as a child’s: “Said Grazie in a voice as sweet as a child’s when she speaks to her mother. Francis into the poemby comparing one of the bird’s voice when it spoke to St. In stanza 1 he uses alliteration, simile and metaphor to give the reader a graphic view of the dwarfs deformed body: “The dwarf with his hands on backwards sat, slumped like a half-filled sack on tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run. McCaig uses juxtaposition by situating the dwarf outside of the huge three tier cathedral. I think that it was a good idea to situate the dwarf outside the huge cathedral and create the image of a great, strong, beautifully designed building standing over a small, weak, deformed person. Francis to the little deformed dwarf. ” This tells me that the dwarf had no strength to keep himself up straight and every time he sat down his back got closer to the ground. McCaig then goes on to use sarcasm when he compares the dwarf to St. I looked at such ideas as effective figures of speech, choice of words, important images, irony……. In stanza 3 McCaig called the dwarf “a ruined temple. I think that McCaig has made a very clear image of the tourists and that he makes very good use of the metaphor by extending it.
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