AN ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM IN A SLUM

- STEPHEN SPENDER

ENGLISH PROJECT

BY : J OME BHARATH

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INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

VICE PRINCIPAL

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

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 PG TEACHERS
SNo NUMBER SIGNATURE

1) INTRODUCTION 5

2) ABOUT THE AUTHOR 6

3) OVERVIEW 7

4) POEM 8

5) EXPLANATION BY STANZA 10

6) POETIC DEVICES 14

7) IMPORTANT MEANINGS 15

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INTRODUCTION:

*The theme of the poem, 'An

elementary school classroom' is
the plight of poor children living in
slums.
*The poet, Stephen Spender
wants the life of the slum children
be changed.
*He wants their poverty to end.
He wishes them to live in
healthier, hygienic and beautiful
environment.

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ABOUT AUTHOR:

Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated
on themes of social injustice and the class struggle.

POET NAME: STEPHEN SPENDER

Born: 28 February 1909, Kensington,
London, United Kingdom
Died: 16 July 1995, Westminster, .
London, United Kingdom
Awards: United States Poet Laureate
Education: University of Oxford,
University College School
Junior Branch,
Gresham's School, University College

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OVERVIEW:

According to The Elementary School Classroom in a

Slum Summary, the poet wants the children to
become successful in their lives by making their
dreams come true.
He wanted those bright eyes to become capable enough
to dream.
This poem teaches us the value and importance of
education in everyone's life.

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 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN A SLUM
BY :-STEPHEN SPENDER

Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.

Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round 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 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 map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,

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A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

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? 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, 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 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

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STANZA 1:

 In the first stanza, Spender describes the miserable

condition of the children.
The faces of the children are unlike the usual children of
schools.
 Instead of being exuberant and energetic, they are
like rootless weeds, withered and worn .
They are unclean and untidy, as they are malnourished, sick
and hungry. Just as weeds are not
wanted in the garden,
so are these children of the slum unwanted in the society.
 They have pale faces. Their hair is uncombed.
A tall slim girl has her head bowed down as though she is
exhausted physically because of
malnutrition
and emotionally because of poverty.
 The other students of the class are also in the same
situation.
There is a boy, who is as thin as paper, again because of
malnutrition and lack of civic amenities.

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STANZA 2:

 In the second stanza, the poet describes the dirty

classroom.
On the walls are displayed the names of people who have
given donations.
 The bust of Shakespeare is displayed in the clear
background of the sky.
 Walls have pictures of the beautiful Tyrolese Valley as
well as a map of the world.
The children’s eyes can only view a narrow road enclosed
with a dull sky.
It is quite a dreary and depressing place for children.

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STANZA 3:

 In the third stanza, the pensive poet suddenly turns

belligerent (aggressive) and feels that Shakespeare is
‘wicked’.
This is because he misleads the children.
 He shows them a beautiful world of ships, sun and love
which is not only unreal
for them but has a corrupting influence
on these children and instigates them to steal
and try to escape from their cramped holes.
Their existence is indeed very sad.
 The spectacles they are wearing have glass which has
been broken and mended.

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STANZA 4:

 Finally, in the last stanza, the poet reveals the appalling

truth that there can be no
change for the better
unless a governor, a school inspector or an educationist or a
visitor comes to the school.
 The map in their classroom is the only medium for the
children to view the
world outside their slums
 The windows of their classroom shut them and confine
them to their world of poverty
and helplessness.
 “THE CHILDREN SHOULD GAIN FREEDOM FROM THE CAGE THEY
ARE TRAPPED IN.”

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IMPORTANT MEANINGS:

 Gusty waves: breezy winds

 Pallor: pale, dull face
 Stunted: not fully grown due to
malnutrition
Gnarled: Knotted, rough
 weeds: unwanted plants that grow on
their own
 Paper seeming boy: Very thin boy, as
thin as a sheet of paper

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POETIC DEVICES:

1)SIMILE : a figure of speech involving the comparison of

one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make
a description more emphatic or vivid
“children are compared with rootless weed (like rootless
weed)”

2)METAPHOR : A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for

rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning
another
“boy is compared with paper as he is thin (paper seeming
boy)”

3)REPETITION : Repetition is the simple repeating of a

word, within a short space of words, with no particular
placement of the words to secure emphasis
“use of far to stress on the distance”

4)ALLITERATION: Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition

of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or closely
associated syllables within a group of words, even those
spelled differently. As a method of linking words for effect,
alliteration is also called head rhyme or initial rhyme.

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SUMMARY:

 An Elementary School Classroom

in a Slum, the poet
focuses on the government and
societal norms that create
slums.
 There are no steps taken by the
government to remove
the slums and give these people a
better life.
 The government is not willing to
bring any change which
restricts these innocent lives inside the
boundaries of
these dark alleys.
 The poet wants the kids to
witness the beauty outside
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 in the real world. He wants them to
feel the green nature
and play in the fields.
 They should experience the
warm sand of the beach
and the sunny atmosphere; it is their
right to feel and
learn.

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