Assisi

“The dwarf with his hand on backwards”

• Imagery to immediately show the unfortunate situation of the beggar.

• Shows that the beggar dominated maccaigs experience rather than the church

"sat, slumped"

•Alliteration to emphasise the image.

• Shows that he is having physical difficulty supporting himself as if he has lost hope and given up

“like a half filled sack”

• Similie

• Suggests his body is incomplete or since he is comparing him to an inanimate object suggesting the dwarf is not human.

“ Tiny twisted legs, which sawdust might run”

•Alliteration and imagery of a puppet

• Further emphasis to his physical disability

“ Outside the three tiers of churches”

•Word choice to emphasise the grandeur of the setting

• Juxtapose contrast, with the pitiful image of the beggar

“ In honour of Saint Francis”

•Word choice, highlighting the importance of the saint who devoted his life to the poor

• Establishes the irony of the scene wealthy surroundings, and the poor person didn’t help

“ Over whom he had the advantage of not being dead”

•Sinister tone

• Suggest that the only thing that the beggar has in his favour is the fact that he’s alive nothing else makes him vulnerable

“ Yet”

•Word choice

• Suggest you will not survive for very long

“ A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto to make his fresco tell stories”

•Word choice /tone /register

• The speaker is critical of the priest explanation. If the work is so clever, should it require an explanation or should the message be for itself?

“ Revealed to the illiterate, the goodness of God, and the suffering of his son”

•Word Choice /Tone /Irony

• Continues the idea of irony as the beggar is not being shown any goodness

“ Goodness / Suffering”

•Irony, word choice

• The priest references, the goodness, and the suffering captured within the fresco, and yet seems more interested in the work then practising these ideas for himself

“ I understood the explanation and the cleverness”

•Enjambment, sarcastic tone, word choice

•Tone suggest maccaig is speaking like one of the illiterate

• Speaker is already, and is unimpressed by the priest, discussing the beauty of the art whilst completely ignoring the Teachings

“ A rush of tourists clucking contendly”

•Alliteration, metaphor

• Set up the tourist, as seeming like chickens happy to follow the priest

“ Fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the word”

•Metaphor

•Build on I mage of tourists being compared to chickens

• The priest is like a farmer, feeding them, what he chooses tell them what he thinks they should know

“ It was, they had passed the ruin temple outside”

• “They” implies maccaig feels no affinity with the others in the group, and that they have very different perspectives and attitudes towards the beggar

“ruined temple”

•Metaphor

• The beggar is described in contrast to the grandeur of the church

“ eyes wept pus, whose back was higher than his head, who’s lopsided mouth”

•Word choice imagery

• Intense physical description to make us feel even more Sympathetic

“ Grazie”

• Instead of feeling bitter about his situation, he is grateful for any small kindness shown

“ A voice as sweet as a child, when she speaks to her mother”

•Simile

•The comparison of him to a child emphasises his innocence

• Forces reader, to feel pity, not only for his physical difficulties, but also for his vulnerability and his helplessness

“ Or a birds when it spoke to Saint Francis”

•Extends the similie

• powerful comment of the irony of the scene, a needy person outside the church built to Saint Francis