Analyzing Norman Maccaig's Poem 'Assisi'

‘Assisi’ By Norman MacCaig- Essay By Zaynab Zahra

“Assisi by Norman MacCaig is a poem which deals with a religious issue within the Catholic Church. MacCaig’s speaker visits a church, which is being celebrated for its riches, while a beggar sits outside needing help, revealing the hypocrisy of the church. The lack of a regular meter or rhyme scheme allows the narrative of the poem to convey MacCaig’s important message to all.

In the first stanza of the poem the speaker graphically describes the pain and suffering of the beggar and explores his physical condition. The MacCaig introduces the poem by stating:
The dwarf with his hands on backwards
The writer describes the beggar as “The dwarf with his hands on backwards”. The poet refers to the beggar as a dwarf and “his hands on backwards” suggests his grotesque position and also tells us he is in pain and distress. The use of a metaphor helps to portray his discomfort and suffering which further develops our image of the beggar’s situation. Following that, the narrator continues describing his appearance and says:

Sat, slumped like a half-filled sack
MacCaig uses the poetic technique, enjambment, with the word “sat” which helps the reader focus of the beggar’s condition, and also helps to keep the flow of the dwarf’s descriptions, which further emphasises his uncomfortable situation.

This line is also an example of sibilance and helps the reader picture a vivid image in their minds of his suffering and imagine how deformed he is that cannot support his body. Nearing the end of the stanza the poet conveys his feelings about the beggar and he

says:
Over whom he had the advantage
Of not being dead yet
It is clear from this that the speaker feels that he is better than the beggar at this point in the poem and the bitter, caustic tone that is also conveyed further emphasises his feelings of superiority. This quote also suggests that the narrative thinks being alive is the only thing in his favour and implies that death might be a better option for him than living in extreme poverty. Furthermore, the word “yet” that the speaker uses at the end of his sentence gives us the idea that he foresees his death in the near future and also gives us a image of him being sinister. In this stanza the poet describes in detail the physical situation of the beggar, which is sitting outside the church of St Francis and thus introduces a religious controversy with the true meaning of the church and the beggar.

In the second stanza the speaker tone changes from anger to pity and MacCaig reveals the hypocrisy of the church through his description of its riches and opulence in comparison to the beggar. The poet tells us about the mural paintings in the church and what priests tell the people about them:
How clever it was of Giotto
To make his frescos tell stories
It is evident from this that the priests who are supposed to spread the message of true Christianity only represent money, which the frescos help to convey. This helps to increase our understanding of the religious issue, which is the hypocrisy of the church; the priests contradict their true beliefs of helping the poor and instead exploit their riches and superiority in society. MacCaig describes the exterior of the church:
Outside the three tiers of the churches built
In honour of St Francis
This line also helps to reinforce the idea of the church misusing their riches for unnecessary things like making the church look more elaborate instead of investing in reducing poverty. The way MacCaig illustrates the church’s opulence helps the reader to develop their understanding of the religious issue.

Furthermore, the narrative goes on to describe the irony of the church. The church is so extravagant yet is in honour of St Francis, who lived to help the poor. Again, in stanza two the speaker tells us about a priest’s teachings and about the actual hypocrisy behind what he says:
Would reveal to the illiterate the goodness
Of God and the suffering if his son
This quote is an example of heavy irony; it shows how the priest, who is supposed to be a strict follower of the bible, seems unaffected by the beggar outside the church. The priest also uses the words “goodness” and “suffering” to describe the frescos, and this infers that he is more impressed with the depiction of the religion instead of following the teachings. The second stanza ends by the speaker saying:
I understood
The explanation and
The cleverness
It is made clear from this that the priest offends the speaker by showing his pride over his understanding of Giotto’s work, even though he doesn’t demonstrate its meaning. Again, the hypocrisy of the church is portrayed through the priest, who is supposed to show the biblical qualities and instead boasts about his intelligence.

MacCaig conveys his feelings of disgust towards the tourists who are ignoring the beggar despite visiting St Francis’ church. The poets starts the third stanza by saying:
A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,
Fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the Word
The writer uses a metaphor to compare the tourists as clucking contentedly, which emphasises the hypocrisy of the tourists by the use of alliteration. The line infers that they are just as bad as the priests by blindly following him, “fluttered after him”. The use of an extended metaphor “grain of the Word” adds to the hypocrisy as this compares tourists to farmyard animals and further extends the idea of the tourists being just as oblivious to the beggar as the priest, who is leading them by scattering the “grain of the Word”.