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Summary Of Monty Place By Phyllis Mcginley

698 Words3 Pages

Phyllis McGinley’s “Trinity Place” is a piece of the twentieth century featuring pigeons, a bird recognizable by its inhabiting of cities. Grazing on the grass of New York, this municipal bird raises connotations of filth and disrespect. Taking this idea a step further, McGinley proposes that the Church, represented by pigeons in her poem, is a place of narcissism. Through the use of symbolism, allusion, and repetition, McGinley emphasizes that the Church should prioritize the helpless over themselves. By utilizing symbolism, the pigeons become a representation of the narcissistic Church. The connection between pigeons and the Church is immediately apparent from the pigeons’ location: New York’s Trinity Churchyard. Having the pigeons live there creates a strong association. Additionally, various phrases throughout McGinley’s piece reiterate the pigeon being a symbol for the Church; for example, the words “search of their proper” utilize many denotations. Proper is defined as being genuine, acceptable, or as a church service. Connecting the pigeon to a church service only emphasizes how the pigeon symbolizes the members of the church. Subsequently, the use of “preen” is …show more content…

For the end of each stanza, two sentences are used: one featuring the pigeons and one featuring men. Each stanza refers to the men in a similar sentence structure that utilizes “it is only the men who are...” which emphasizes how the men are shunned by society. Furthermore, the pigeons being placed before the men in the first two stanzas illustrates how the pigeons, which symbolize the Church, place themselves before assisting others. Having mankind stated first in the last stanza, therefore, indicates that the Church should prioritize the helpless: people that are “idle” and “lean” from hunger. This change in structure and repetition emphasizes that mankind’s poor should be the Church’s top

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Lines one through seven define the free bird as one that “floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays” (Angelou) this is a representation of freedom and joy. The second and third stanza lines, eight through fourteen defines the caged bird that “stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage” (Angelou) where these words reference isolation and despair compared to the freedom in stanza one. These lines create a visual response of the bird’s environments. The third stanza is repeated at the end of the poem for prominence as it reflects the two birds are so different.

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