Assisi

A detailed Summary of 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

on tiny twisted legs from which

fluttered after him as he scattered

sawdust might run."

. Then he goes on to tell of the dwarfs voice when he says "Grazie" for the money one of the tourists have given to him outside the cathedral.

McCaig uses this metaphor to show that the tourists are rushing after the priest because he is spreading the word of God, he compares the tourists to hens who are following the farmer as if he is scattering grain. This also shows that the tourists did not pay much attention to Giotto's frescoes which told stories of God. This leads to the tourists devaluing the life and work of Christ. 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.

I think McCaig does this to give the reader an element of surprise by giving the dwarf such a sweet voice when the reader would expect a rough, deep voice, McCaig uses very good figures of speech in these both stanzas describing the dwarf.

sat, slumped like a half-filled sack

This is saying that the dwarf had an advantage over one group of people, the dead. 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.

Some common words found in the essay are:
St Francis, Francis McCaig, Norman McCaig, Grazie McCaig, Christ McCaig, Giotto Assisi's, Assisi Italy, st francis, Francis Outside, Critical Evaluation-Assisi, sawdust run, stanza 3, littery techniques, mccaig reader, built honour st, honour st, built honour, cathedral built, mccaig goes, voice sweet, voice sweet child's, honour st francis, choice words images, speech choice words,

Approximate Word count = 1260
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English