AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM: STEPHEN SPENDER :POEM /C B S E `12

Far far from gusty waves these children's faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor.
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-
seeming boy, with rat's eyes. The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father's gnarled disease,
His lesson from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in the tree room, other than this.

On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare's head,
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world. And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this world, are world,
Where all their future's painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky,
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, and the map a bad example
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal--
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night? On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

Unless, governor, teacher, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Break O break open 'till they break the town
And show the children green fields and make their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books, the white and green leaves open
History is theirs whose language is the sun.

 

 

 

WORDS	MEANINGS		WORDS	MEANINGS
Gusty	stormy		Torn round	Scattered  over
rootless	Without any settlement		Civilized	enlighted
weeds	Wild herbs		belled	Having bells
Pallor	Colourless  faces		Tree room	An enclosure of tree
stunted	Prevented from growing		Doom	destruction
Gnarled	knotty		Lead sky	Dull sky
unnoted	unnoticed		Holes	homes
slag	Waste of metal ores		slums	Dwelling place of poors
azure	bright blue in colour like a cloudless sky.		Gold sands	Golden colour  sand beach
Shut upon their lives	Blocking development		Sun naked	free
catacombs	graves		Sour cream	Yellowish cream
Tyrolese	An Austrian Alpine province		peeped	Look quickly through narrow opening
cramped	confined		capes	Extension of land in water

 

LITERARY DEVICES:

Simile is the comparison of the two things using the words 'like' or 'as.'

In the first stanza, "Like rootless weeds" is the example of a smile where the students are compared to the unwanted plants. "Sour cream walls," "like bottle bits on stones,"

Metaphor is the comparison of two very different things and here only one thing lies in common. The example of a metaphor is "paper seeming boy" when the poet compares one of the boys to resemble much like a paper. "Rat's eyes," "map," "sealed with a lead sky," "cramped holes," "endless night," and "white and green leaves."

Repetition: use of far to stress on the distance.

Alliteration: Use of ‘f’ sound (From fog)

Assonance: repetition of vowel sound ‘e’ (Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley)

Allusion: Reference to well-known person or place ( Shakespeare’s  head, Tyrolese valley)

 

POET:

Sir Stephen Harold Spender  (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle.

SUMMARY

This poem by Stephen Spender gives a detail description of a school classroom in a slum with the children in the class. The poem expresses the poet’s political views and brings forth the difficulties faced by the kids in slums. This poem picture of  the social injustice is expressed each and every lines of the poem.

The poet portrays a pathetic condition of the children in a slum school .Their world is dark, harsh and unhealthy. They are as undesired as the rootless weeds. Their untidy hair  and pale faces  clearly declares their poverty stricken and unprivileged  condition. These children, as the tall girl, are stressed by the burden compulsion of distress. They are fatigued both physically and emotionally. The paper thin boy is skinny with a scared look. They are unlucky heir of only diseases and poor luck. Most of them are too weak to get up from the desk to recite his lesson. However, there is one younger child at the back of the dim class having the  inexperienced eyes which are full of hope. He has a  dream to play games outside because  gloom has  not enveloped him yet.

The classroom walls are dirty. They haven’t been painted for a long period and  these children dwell in a world which is colourless and heart rending. On the walls, the names of people who have given donations to the school  are written. There is also a bust of Shakespeare. It has the background of a clear sky at the time of sun-rise. The Tyrolese Valley with its beautiful flowers presenting a world of the heavenly splendor adorns   the wall. Moreover, there is a map of their world. From the classroom windows it is covered with foggy and looks harsh representing a dark and desolate future. Their  can only view a narrow road which is surrounded by a dull sky. The poet says  that these children are victim of  a hopeless situation. The beauty of nature such as the rivers and the high land jutting from the sea is luxury to them.

The sad poet suddenly turns pugnacious and feels that Shakespeare is ‘wicked’. He is critical because to him it is misleading the children. He shows them a beautiful world of ships, sun and love. Unfortunately, it is not true at all and it may have a frustrating influence on these children. They would try to escape from the hard reality. They are inhabitant of a world of no hope. Their appearances are so frail,  it looks that they are ‘wearing’ skins. They use spectacles with  broken and mended glasses. Their carry the cruel proof of deprivation. The poet is angry to see the maps on their walls showing the beautiful scenic graphics instead of their slums.

 

: In the final stanza the poet has an keen request  to the governor, inspector and visitor to do something to develop  the poor  condition. A  political will is just needed for  showing the beautiful world outside with the reality inside. The poet is hopeful that  the authorities would realize their moral responsibilities and take necessary measures to evacuate them from this grave of distress. He wants all the obstacles to be moved for the sake of  true education for them. The children should be provided with freedom to experience the carnival of Nature. They should be allowed to read books and  breathe the fresh air of knowledge to discover themselves. Their creations and contributions would enrich  the books of history. Let them find their place in the this worthy solar system.

The poem ends with an optimistic powerful line - those who make history are the ones who shine like the Sun.

 

 QUESTIONS:

 1.What is the theme of the poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a slum’?

 2. What picture of the slum children is depicted in the poem?

3.What do slum children receive as inheritance?

 4. Explain ‘far from gusty waves’.

5. What is the comparison drawn with squirrel’s game?

 6. Explain ‘like bottle bits on stones’.

 7. Explain ‘like bottle bits on stones’.

 8. In spite of despair and disease, the slum children are not devoid of hope. Give an example of their hope or dream.

 9. Explain ‘future’s painted with a fog’.

 10. How is ‘map’ a bad example?

 11. Bring out the optimism in the last stanza.

 12. How can powerful people improve the lot of slum children?

 13. Explain ‘history is theirs whose language is the sun’.

 14. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:

 15. The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-seeming boy, with rats’s eyes.

 16.At back of the dim class one unnoted, sweet and young his eyes live in a dream, of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

 17. On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare’s head, Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities. Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map awarding the world its world.

 18. And yet, for these Children, these windows, not this map, their world, Where all their future’s painted with a fog, A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky, Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

 19. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example, with ships and sun and love tempting them to steal-For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes. From fog to endless night?

 20. On their slag heap, these children Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel. With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones. All of their time and space are foggy slum. So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

 21. Unless, governor, inspector, visitor, This map becomes their window and these windows That shut upon their lives like catacombs.

 22 .Break O break open till they break the town

And show the children to green fields, and make their world

Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues

Run naked into books the white and green leaves open

History theirs whose language is the sun.- EXPLAIN

 23.What is the central theme of the poem An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum by Stephen Spender?

 (24) How do the faces of the children of this slum school look like ?

 

(25) Explain 'weighed-down head'.

 

(26) Who is the unlucky heir and what is he reciting ?

27) Find words from the passage which mean the following:

(i) blowing strongly  (ii) undeveloped (ii} not clear/bright (iii) gusty (iv) stunted (vi) dim

 

More Questions

 

 (A) Where do you think are these children sitting ?

 

(B) How do the faces and hair of these children look ?

 

(C) Why is the head of the tall girl weighed-down ?

 

(D) What do you understand by 'The paper-seeming boy, with rat's eyes'?

 

(E) Where are donations and Shakespeare's head placed ?

 

 

(F) Explain: 'Awarding the world its world'.

 

(G) Which world is of the children in a slum school and which world is not their world ?  (D) What is the future of these children ?

 

(H) What do they crave for—a narrow street or rivers and capes ?

 

(I) Find words from the passage which mean the following :    (i) unpleasant  (ii) cloudy thick air  

 

(J) Why is Shakespeare 'wicked' and the map 'a bad example for these children?

 

(K) What tempt them and why ?

 

(L) How do they live in their 'holes'?

 

(D) What blot 'their' maps?

 

(M) Find words from the passage which mean :   (i) secretly (ii) waste material  (ii) pieces

 

(N) How can 'this map' become 'their window'?

 

(O) What have shut upon their lives like catacombs ?

 

(P) Explain : '... till they break the town'.

Till they come out of the dirty surroundings and slums of the town and come in the open.

 

(Q) What will happen if the children come out of the bonds that bind them ?

 

(R) Who create history ?

 

(S) Find words from the passage which mean :  (i) close (ii) underground graves (iii) sky-blue.

 

 

 

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS:

 

Q. 1. What does the poet wish for the children of the slums?  

Q. 2. What is the message that Stephen Spender wants to give through the poem 'An Elementary School Classroom In a Slum’? 

Q. 3. Why does Stephen Spender use the images of despair and disease in the first stanza of the poem, and with what effect?

Q. 4. This poem was written against the background of the Second World War. But Spender doesn't describe the lives of generals or heroes but of the poor children of slums. Why and how does he do so? 

Q. 5. Crushed under poverty, disease and miseries do the little school children of slums have any dreams or hopes? What are they? 

Q. 6. The poet says: 'And yet, for these children, these windows, not this world, are ‘world'. What is the real world for them and which is not for them?

Q. 7. 'So blot their maps with slums as big as doom'. Why does the poet express such an angry protest? 

Q. 8. What should governors, teachers, inspectors and other important and powerful persons do to improve the lot of children living in slums? 

Q. 9. 'History is theirs whose language is the sun'. Justify the veracity of this statement.

Q. 10. Describe the devices used by Stephen Spender in the poem to create the desired poetic effect.

 

 

 

 

Explain the following phrases:

1. “gusty waves”- Here the gusty waves means the energetic children who are like strong waves. The slum children, on the other hand, are under nourished and far different from these ‘gusty waves.’

2. “like bottle bits on stone”- the children wear spectacles having shattered glasses and the glasses look like bits of glasses on stone walls. Basically, it shows the deprived condition and the hardships faced by the slum children. This is an example of a simile.

3.“future’s painted with fog”- Just as the fog blurs one’s view during winter, the same way the social injustices have blurred the future of these slum children.

1. Does Stephen Spender protest against social injustice and class inequalities in this poem? How?

2. Describe the images of distress, pain and disease in the poem.

3. Describe the two worlds. Can they be reconciled? If yes, how?

4. Spender's poem describes the miserable and pathetic lives of children living in slums. Give three examples of their misery.

5. Have poverty and disease killed all dreams and aspirations of these children? If they have still some dreams, enumerate them.

6. Describe the slums where these children stink and suffer.

7. Why does the poet say : 'So blot their maps with slums as big as doom' ?

8. What should the important and powerful people do to improve the lot of the children living in slums?

9. Why does the poet say: 'History is theirs whose language is the sun' ?

10. Describe the poetic devices used in the poem citing examples from the text.