A poem I found rather appealing because of the striking aspects of it was "Assisi" by Norman MacCaig.

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Assisi

Choose a poem which appealed to you because it was striking. Show techniques the poet used to capture your interest and engage your feelings.

A poem I found rather appealing because of the striking aspects of it was “Assisi” by Norman MacCaig.

The poem is set in the small town of Assisi in Italy. The poem is written in three short stanzas. The poet uses various techniques which run throughout his poem for example he uses metaphors and similes to show the selfishness of the tourists. The power and might of the church, the hypocrisy of the priest and the ugliness of the badly deformed beggar.

MacCaig immediately presents us with this shocking image of a deformed dwarf someone we can scarcely recognize as human. His descriptive simile ‘Sat slumped like a half filled sack on tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run’ highlights the crumpled shapelessness of this sad little figure.

MacCaig highlights the dwarfs pitiful appearance by his use of alliteration, the repeated‘s ‘.

This is followed with a contrast. “Outside  the three tiers of the churches built in honor of St Francis , brother of the poor, talker with birds “ this instantly tells us that St Francis was a very prominent man, he was a wealthy man who gave up his wealth to help the poor. “ Talker with birds “suggests that St Francis was sweet tempered, this showed me how important St Francis was.

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MacCaig wraps up the first stanza by saying “over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet “ , this represents that the end may be near for the dwarf after living around the huge cathedral many years , he in now beginning to wear away. It also tells us that the only advantage the dwarf has over St Francis is that of not being dead yet. He is such an outcast that he does not have any advantages over St Francis. This extract makes me think how awful and lonely people who are less fortunate than ...

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