An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Poet: Stephen Spender

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Prescribed for class XII in C.B.S.E.)

Poet:  Stephen Spender

Main Points about the Poem:

The poet visits a school located in a slum area. He is shocked to notice the miserable condition of those poor children. Even the condition of the school is pitiable.

Description about the children sitting in the class room:

1. He watches the faces of the children sitting in a class room. These are pale and without blood. The poet compares them with the rootless weeds which become yellow and lifeless. Normally, the children are full of activities and energy as we find in the gusty waves of sea. But these children are passive and lacking in energy.

2. The hair of the children is untidy and hanging over their pale faces. Then the poet gives more examples of such children. There is a tall girl whose head is bent (jhuka hua). The poet calls another boy ‘the paper seeming boy’. It means that he is as light as a paper. His eyes are looking like that of a rat. It means that his face is very weak and small and his eyes seem to be big and bulging out.

3. There is another boy who has not grown properly. He is an ill-fed boy who has inherited a disease from his father. His bones are twisted. He is reciting his lesson. Then the poet notices a little boy sitting at the back bench. He is not properly visible due to dim light in the class room. He is a sweet child who has dreamy eyes. His mind is not in the class room. He seems to think about a squirrel that plays joyfully in its room, that is, a tree. He desires to have that type of class room for himself.

Stanza 2.      Description of the class room

1. A foul smell like that of sour cream is coming from the class room of the school in slum area. On the dirty wall of the class room, there are the names of the donors. These people must have given donation for building the school. In addition to this, there is a picture of Shakespeare’s bust. The poet calls Shakespeare ‘wicked’ as the children might feel tempted to steal it.

2.  There are several other pictures like scenery of a dawn without clouds, a picture of a main church of a district, of the Austrian Tyrol valley with bell shaped flowers.

3. There is also a picture of the map of the world. The map has been called ‘open handed’ because it shows the world with all of its seas and lands. The poet calls this map a bad example. It creates a contrast between the two worlds. The world of the poor children is limited. It has no beautiful valleys, flowing rivers, cape, etc. Their world is limited to a narrow street under a dull sky.

4. But these children have nothing to do with these pictures or the list of the donors. Their world is only that dirty class room. They watch through the windows only dim fog. It signifies that their future is also dim and foggy. The lane of their future seems to be blocked in the dull sky. Their world has no beautiful rivers, valleys and capes (peninsula/isthmus/neck of land). Their world is also without sweet promises usually made by politicians.

Stanza 3.

1. It is not good to show them the outside world. They have no means of livelihood. So they may be tempted to steal in the world of Shakespeare shown to them through the open map.

2. They pass their life like rats in small rooms and the outside world is dim and foggy for them. It is like an endless night. Then the poet describes their weak bodies which have no vitality left in them. He compares their bodies to the heap of slag. Their bones are clearly visible from the skin of their bodies. They wear second hand spectacles. All of their time is spent in that dirty class room and foggy and dark lanes of their slum area. So it would be better to show in the map their slum area which as large as hell is.

Stanza 4. 

1. The poet now addresses some words for the governors and the inspectors of these schools. They always come there only to make a formal visit. The poet says that the map of the world is meaningless to them unless these poor children are taken out of the slum areas. At present the windows of their class rooms enable them to look at the outside world. But the world seen by them is foggy and dark. It is no more beautiful for them. Their life is lost in those dark and foggy lanes which seem to lead them to their graves.

Then the poet makes an appeal to the governors, the inspectors and the visitors to break their windows. They may be allowed to move out of those narrow lanes and come in under the open sky. They would watch green fields and play there in golden sand under the blue sky. Once their life becomes without worries of life, they will focus on their study also. The white leaves of the books and the green leaves of the trees would play an equally important role in the growth of their life. In the end, the poet says that history belongs to the people whose children are free to move anywhere in the open fields as the sun moves freely in the sky.