The irony of the situation is that the begger is placed outside a church dedicated to the man known as "brother of the poor". The juxtaposition of this disabled and deformed dwarf outside a huge, three teired church famed for its elaborate detail and magnificence emphasises the beggers hideousness. The ending of stanza one is complex. The simple fact that the dwarf is alive does not seem to be an advantage when considering his disabilites and his circumstances. The use of the word "yet" as a line end shows that even this is temparary and death will surely come.
In contrast to the dwarf, stanza two introduces the character of the preist, who is seen to be a proud man showing off what is protrayed as "his" church and its valuable paintings. The priest is also shown to be self indulgent - to him the aesthetic quality of the paintings is of more importance than his pastrol duty. "How clever it was" shows how condesending the priest is and how he sees himself as surperior to Gitto. The priest is seen to be hypocritical as he ignores a real human suffering that is literally on his door-step when he should be bringing notice to it, for example informing the tourisits and encouraging them to help. MacCaig seees him as commercial and materalistic, as he is nothing more than a tour guide collecting tips. MacCaig feels he should be more spirtually minded. MacCaig is trying to convey a sence of dry and sarcastic tone, "i understood the explination / the cleverness", the use of this as a line end shows the poets sceptism and his critism of the priest. Irony is created with the priest who is spending time with tourisits who are passing through. He is not talking to nor caring for the well-being of his parishioners. His natural instincs are commercial not alturistic.
Stanza three introduces us to the character of the tourists who follow the priest, swolling every word he utters and in doing so, walk past the begger, ignoring his plight. MacCaig creates a collective noun to describe the group as "a rush of toursits" which is effective since the reader can immediatley grasp the context of the busy toursits. The extended metaphor MacCaig uses "clucking contently" as a sense of imagery of birds that MacCaig describes the tourists to convey that they are proverbially brainless. The tourists are equally indiscrimminating as they follow the priest swolling the "word". The alliteration MacCaig uses "clucking contentally" suggests the toursists are happy and familuar in the situation. The onomatiopia "fluttered" further highlights the brainlessness of the tourisits. It is as if they are totally unthinking and are not there to value the church but just to tick another venue of their list. The word "word" used in line 20 is for the teachings of the church. The priest expects the tourists to accept the dogma. The use of juxtaposition of the apathy of society is highlighted as the tourists "passed the ruined temple", this metaphor is used to show that the Christians the body is the tabrenade of the soul. It should be treated with respect. The "temple" is ruined and is not seen to be respected by those who are more interested in the church and it's works of art rather than mankind. This metaphor is also used to add to the description of the begger in stanza one and stanza three. Irony is created throughout the stanza as a human, this "ruined temple" deserves respect. The tone created throughout this stanza inlcudes the same brutal language of desecription as was used in stanza one, this is used again to add to the picture of the begger. The line break used here is horrific, "who's eyes / wept pus". The eyes are the windows to the soul but the man cannot see clearly because he is in such poor health, "who's back was higher / than his head" is an accurate but unsympathetic picture. It almost seems as if MacCaig is poking fun at his apperance. MacCaig successfully used repition of the word "who's" to emphasise the horrific deformities but is effective because the third usage leads on to the innoate sweetness and goodness inside the man.
The simile MacCaig uses "as sweet / as a child's" suggests innocence, while the use of the female pronoun and the mother - to - child relationship offers the connotation of gentleness, love and respect. " A birds when it spoke / to St. Francis" the idea of the Godly man spending time communing with nature further adds purity to the image.
The character of the begger describes that the man is an "inncocent" and is harmless. Our attention is drawn to the injustices that he has suffered and we feel real, genuine pity for him. The fact he is having to beg outisde a church in order to support himself to exsist, forces the reader into a reaction of anger at those who have the means to help him and those who have a duty to help him. When he speaks it is the tone of his voice that is important not what he says, it is this that MacCaig marvels at, MacCaig celebrates life and how marvellous it can be.
In conclusion I believe MacCaig conveys the clear message of the hypocrisy of the church to the reader. I feel he conveys this in a successful way by the use of word choice, juxtaposition, contrast, irony and imagery.
