Class 12 (Flamingo)

An Elementary School Classroom in A Slum

(By: Stephen Spender)

 About the Poet
Sir Stephan Harold Spender was
❖ Born In the year 1909 in England
❖ He was a poet, novelist and essayist.
❖ His major stream of work is on :
1. Social Justice and
2. The Class Struggle
 About the Poem
• This poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom
in a Slum’ was part of “The God that
Failed”1949.
• A lyrical poem.
• It is about young children.
• The unpleasant lives of poor children in the
slums.
• The importance of Education and the role of
Teachers.
 First Stanza
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.

 EXPLANATION
• ‘Far far’ repetition to lay stress on the distance i.e. very
far away.
• ‘gusty waves’ sudden rush of strong wind is full of energy
and vigour.
• The faces of the children are very far from being
energetic as they should be.
• ‘Like rootless weeds’ use of simile. Rootless is without a
foundation of values, weeds being unwanted.
• So, the children are unwanted and without any bindings
their hair is smeared all over their place faces.
 EXPLANATION
(Description of the children)
• A tall girl, probably could be older for the class in which she is
studying, as she is struck in poverty.
• ‘paper seeming boy’ metaphor to describe the boy i.e. his skin
is as thin and white as paper.
• Another boy has deformed body which he has inherited from
his father. He cannot stand and is reciting the lesson form his
seat.
• The classroom is dark, poorly lit.
• Another boy is not noticeable as he is at the back of the room.
• This boy’s eyes are bright as if they are dreaming of escaping
out into the open, playing with squirrels in tree houses rather
than being in this small, dim classroom.
 Second Stanza
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,

A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky

Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

 EXPLANATION
• Walls of the classroom are dirty, yellow in colour like sour
cream.
• Description of the posters put up on the walls of the
classroom. They are probably donated to the school.
• One of them has a picture of Shakespeare. His head in the
picture is bald, looks like the rising sun.
• Education is said to be similar to the rising Sun as it spreads
light in all lives just as the Sun spread sunlight in all the cities.
• Shakespeare is considered to be the symbol of culture,
education and intelligence all over the world.
• The next poster is of the Tyrolese valley, full of churches and
flowers which symbolizes a beautiful creation of nature.
 EXPLANATION
• Another one is a map of the World. ‘Map’ is a metaphor used to
signify a knowledge i.e. shared generously.
• But to these children the world is not the one shown in these
pictures, but is the one they see out of the classroom window.
Their future is hopeless.
• ‘A narrow street’ is a metaphor for their future which is limited.
• ‘Sealed with a lead sky’ another metaphor, it indicates sealed with
a grey coloured sky.
• They have a dark future as their options are covered with dismay.
• The ‘stars’ means that as the stars shine in the dark sky, similarly,
the light of knowledge could brighten these children’s future but
they are far away from it.
 THIRD STANZA
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.

 EXPLANATION
• These pictures on the wall have no meaning for the children.
• Their upbringing is such that they are looking for bad qualities
in everyone. So to them even Shakespeare is wicked and bad.
• The pictures of maps, ships, sun indicate travel, love and
acceptance. These pictures is beyond their abilities.
• Instead the desire for love and acceptance will force them to do
crimes like stealing.
• ‘Cramped holes’ is a metaphor to indicate their small homes
which are filled to capacity.
• They have adapted themselves to live in these spaces.
• The children are so skinny that their clothes are like a skin and
their skeleton is visible through them. This is due to lack of
nutrition.
 EXPLANATION
• They have worn looking glasses made of steel which are cheap,
heavy and uncomfortable.
• This signifies that their outlook on life is also hardened with
their life’s ruthlessness.
• ‘like bottle bits on stones’ is a simile to describe the lenses in
their spectacles which have been repaired.
• ‘all of their time and space are foggy slum’ is a metaphor to
show that their life is dark, dirty and without hope.
• Their chances of escaping have been further reduced by
building bigger slums. The schools and Government making
these slums is the cause for these people to live in them
• The education system is such that it is forcing them to live in
these slums and not come out of them.
 FOURTH STANZA
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.

 EXPLANATION
• Asking the Government and public to make these maps on the
walls, the children’s vision. To make it their aspiration and an
achievable reality for them.
• The classroom windows which have restricted their
opportunities have to be broken open.
• ‘Break o break open’ repetition and alliteration shows urgency
to help them escape and achieve their dreams.
• They should be taken to green fields rather than the dim
slums.
• ‘Azure’ is deep blue sky used as anti thesis to the foggy lead
sky where they live.
• The sunny, warm sand of these beaches and the bright blue
sky will instill a hunger in their minds for knowledge.
 EXPLANATION
• ‘White and green leaves’ is a metaphor. White
implies the pages of a book and the green leaves
signify the clean environment, prosperity.
• Economical empowerment will come to these
children.
• Powerful last line which means that the people who
make history are the ones who speak, think, feel and
enjoy the Sun.
 MESSAGE
The poem appeals to the rulers, the law enforcing
bodies and the philanthropists represenetd by the
‘governor, inspector,visitor’ to improve the condition
of the children in the slums which can be done
through education. The poem ends as and optimistic
note with the message that there are solutions to
this problem and a lot of these children can be
improved. The poem raises concerns like sensitivity
towards the underprivileged, equity, equality,
awarness, optimisim, determination and the need to
change the condition of these children.