CONTENT TEACHING POETRY-2(FLAMINGO)

An Elementary school classroom in a slum (Stephen Spender)

Objective
-Appreciating a piece of poetry

-Understanding the condition of the slum children

-empathizing the social issue of Discrimination

- identifying the literary devices and understanding their thematic content
-developing sensitivity towards our social responsibility
-Locating the symbols, contrasting images used in the poetry
-Write answers to the questions involving the poem

INTRO-

 Written on the back drop of second world war

 Attacks the capitalistic economy- rich getting richer and poor getting poorer
 Demands equal opportunities for education for the poor and underprivileged

.THEME –

 Theme of social injustice and class inequalities, denial of opportunities to slum dwellers
 Concerns the widening gap between rich and poor
 Need of educating the poor children to bring social harmony and economic equilibrium

Gist-

 Scene of primary school classroom in a slum

 Dull, dismal atmosphere
 Images of “tall girl weighing down head,” “paper seeming boy,” “unlucky heir of twisted bone”,
“unnoted, sweet and young,”
 General picture of impoverished, malnutritioned, diseased children attending a class
 The dirty classroom displayed the names of donors, portrait of Shakespeare, picture of Tyrolese
valley, world map
 A contrast expressed between the world of rich , affluent and this slum world
 Shakespeare is wicked, the map is meaning less
 The poet calls for action by the policy makers, Governors, Inspectors, visitors to bring for a
radical change in the lives of these children
 Let we break open the shackles of inequality to create a better world
 Each child should have the fundamental right to freedom to create golden history of their own
 Poem ends with a hope of a better world, an enlightened one.

LITERARY DEVICES
 IMAGE AND SYMBOLS
-Gusty waves ,
rootless weeds,
paper seeming boy,
twisted bones,
sour cream walls,
Tyrolese valley,
ships and sun,
bottle bits on stones,
Shakespeare’s head,
open handed map,
cramped holes,
gold sands
ALLITERATION
Far far from gusty waves,
Bottle bits
Surely Shakespeare
SIMILE
Like rootless weeds
Like catacombs
Like bottle bits on stones
Slums as big as dooms
METAPHORS
Rat’s eyes
Father’s gnarled disease
Squirrel’s game
Tree room
Open handed map
Future’s is painted with a fog
Lead sky
Cramped holes
Slag heap
Wear skins peeped through their bones
Spectacles of steel
Tongue run naked into books
White and green leaves open