Assisi

SQA Higher English 2022

Summary

The poem is 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗴𝗮𝗿 sitting outside the Cathedral dedicated to St Francis in Assisi, Italy. It also describes the tourists and priest avoiding the beggar.

Themes

❥ Hypocrisy (this is reinforced through the priest's intellectual vanity who shows off his knowledge to tourists while showing no compassion to the dwarf outside)
❥ Poverty and Injustice (the contrast between the dwarf and the grand church)
❥ Isolation
❥ Suffering (and how it is ignored by apathetic people who are too wrapped up in their own lives)
❥ Disability
❥ Mans inhumanity to man

Characters

❥ Dwarf
❥ Priest
❥ Tourists
❥ Narrator

Structure

❥ Free verse (no rhyme or rhythm)
❥ 3 irregular stanzas to create a conversational, accessible style (each one describes a different scene and ends with an ironic twist):
1. Describes the dwarf
2. Describes the tour inside the church
3. Describes the tourists' reaction to the dwarf
❥ General language is unsophisticated and even monosyllabic

'hands on backwards'

❥ Grotesque metaphor
❥ Conveys deformity (how weak and cripple the man is)

'sat, slumped'

❥ Sibilance (as if he's deflating, can barely support his own frame)
❥ Long vowels (lethargy, tiredness)
❥ Gives a sense of defeat and powerlessness
❥ The lack of movement from the beggar conveys the impression he has lost any spark of life or vitality

'like a half-filled sack'

❥ Simile compares the man to an inanimate object, dehumanising him (he is still and powerless)

'tiny twisted legs'

❥ Alliteration draws attention to his deformity (he is a deformed shell of a human being filled with stuffing)
❥ Even walking is impossible for the man (creates sympathy)
❥ The man is not threatening (emphasises his vulnerability)

'sawdust might run'

❥ Dehumanising (more an object than a man)
❥ His legs can't run, but the sawdust can
❥ 'sawdust' suggests old and worn out

'outside the three tiers of churches built'

❥ Juxtaposition
❥ The man is physically, and on a deeper level separated and 'outside' the church
❥ 'tiers' suggest ornate and lavish and contrasts the ragged beggar
❥ The church has been built at a great expense for someone who devoted their life to the poor and needy

'in honour of St Francis'

❥ Wry comment
❥ Incongruous
❥ The huge church seems inappropriate as a tribute
❥ Fundamental disconnect between what St Francis represented and how he is now honoured

'over whom / he had the advantage / of not being dead yet'

❥ Bitter, caustic, harsh tone (the narrator is pitiful as there is no hope)
❥ Sardonic observation, it is cynical and grimly mocking
❥ The only thing the man has to be grateful of is that he is not dead yet
❥ Shows his life isn't adding up to much (perhaps it would be better if he were dead rather than being forced to endure this terrible existence)
❥ More of an existence than a life
❥ 'yet' has a sinister effect, suggesting that the beggar will not survive this pitiful way of life for much longer

'A priest explained'

❥ The priest acts as a tour guide
❥ Ironic (the priest is supposedly a man devoted to the teachings of the Bible yet he seems unaffected by the beggar)
❥ He is impressed with the depiction of these teachings than in actually practising them himself (hypocrisy)

'reveal to the illiterate'

❥ The possibly illiterate man outside the church can't even get in the church to see these frescoes in the first place

'goodness / of God'

❥ Alliteration emphasises the priests positive impression
❥ Enjambment
❥ Irony (God allows this pain to exist)

'suffering / of His Son'

❥ Sibilance emphasises the priests positive impression
❥ Emphasises the state of the man
❥ The words roll off the priest's tongue but lacks genuine understanding

'I understood'

❥ First person (personal reflection of the speaker)
❥ Caustic, dismissive tone
❥ Narrator is offended by the obvious intellectual pride the priest demonstrates
❥ Short sentence (in response to the longer, flowing description of the priest)
❥ Cynical attitude
❥ The priest is superficial and lacks humanity
❥ Priests are supposed to be humble as well as compassionate
❥ Exposing the hypocrisy of the church
❥ Implies that intelligence without kindness has no value
❥ Enjambment gives it extra impact

'clucking contentedly'

❥ Alliteration and onomatopoeia emphasises the sound of the crowd

'fluttered after him as he scattered / the grain of the Word'

❥ Extended metaphor
❥ Biblical image (allusion) the parable of the sewer
❥ Compares the tourists to hens (noisy, obedient, unthinking)
❥ The tourists are mindless like poultry
❥ They listen in awe to the priest and are ready to swallow whatever he tells them, but the true meaning is lost
❥ The priest appears arrogant and patronising

'they'

❥ The speaker accuses them while distancing himself

'ruined temple'

❥ Metaphor
❥ Describes the beggar
❥ Contrasting the church
❥ The beggar could've been great
❥ A temple is something to be respected and valued but instead it has fallen into disrepair through neglect and this reflects the dwarf lying in ruin
❥ Biblical allusion (your body's a temple)
❥ Although weak, the man is precious

'wept pus, whose back was higher / than his head, whose lopsided mouth'

❥ He is crying, emphasises his sadness
❥ Grotesque image
❥ Describes his deformities
❥ Extremities
❥ Unattractive
❥ The list emphasises the physical hardship he endures

'Grazie'

❥ The man is polite and grateful
❥ Him speaking humanises him

'as sweet / as a child's [...] to St Francis'

❥ Emphasises his naïveté, childlike vulnerability and humanity (he should be cared for and looked after)
❥ Contrasts his physical appearance
❥ Children are innocent and pure
❥ Links to the concerns of St Francis and how this church is built in honour for him