An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum

An Elementary School Classroom in a SlumStephen Spender1964Stanza 1Far 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 heirOf twisted bones, reciting a father's gnarled disease,His lesson from his desk. At back of the dim classOne unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,Of squirrel's game, in the tree room, other than this.

Stanza 2On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare's head,Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed mapAwarding the world its world. And yet, for theseChildren, 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.

Stanza 3Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, and the map a bad exampleWith ships and sun and love tempting them to stealFor lives that slyly turn in their cramped holesFrom fog to endless night? On their slag heap, these childrenWear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steelWith 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.

Stanza 4Unless, governor, teacher, inspector, visitor,This map becomes their window and these windowsThat shut upon their lives like catacombs,Break O break open 'till they break the townAnd show the children green fields and make their worldRun azure on gold sands, and let their tonguesRun naked into books, the white and green leaves openHistory is theirs whose language is the sun.General AnalysisSpenders political voiceIdeological position on:GovernmentEconomicseducationGeneral AnalysisThe students in the classroom are:Underprivilegedmalnourished

General AnalysisThe capitalistic government is supposed to supply equal opportunity for education but the classroom in the slum offers little hope for change or progress for its lower-class students

General AnalysisWritten during the Civil Rights movement in the USA.Comments on race issues in American EducationIt is against capitalism and social injusticeGeneral AnalysisPoem is universalIt does not mention:CountryLocationRaceCitizenshipGeneral AnalysisSpender wanted to shed light on social injustices worldwide.The ThemeStephen Spender highlights the plight of slum children by using vivid images and apt words to picture a classroom in a slum. Through this he touches, in a subtle manner, the themes of social injustice and inequalitiesFar far from gusty waves these children's faces. Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor.The line should state: These childrens faces are far removed from looking like gusty wavesGusty waves: (image) shows brightness, verve and animation.It is missing from the slum childrens faces.Far far from gusty waves these children's faces. Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor.Simile: Like rootless weedsWeeds show the children are unwantedRootless shows they belong nowhere.The slum children are like rootless weeds, unwanted by society and not belonging to society.Far far from gusty waves these children's faces. Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor.Torn: uncombed hairPallor : pale facesTheir uncombed hair fall on their pale facesA few of the slum children are being described: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.

A few of the slum children are being described:The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The tall girls head is weighed-down with sadness, disinterestedness or shame or a mixture of all three.Tall over aged for classA few of the slum children are being described: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.Metaphor: paper- seeming. The boy is as thin as paper.Rats eyes: His eyes pop out from his thin body, looking furtive (sly) like rats eyes.

A few of the slum children are being described: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.The stunted: he must have stopped growingUnlucky Heir:Inheritor (as if being poor is not enough he inherits this disease)Twisted bones: twisted growth

A few of the slum children are being described:reciting a father's gnarled disease, His lesson from his desk.The boy is not reciting a lesson from his desk, but he recites (shows) his disease from his desk.Gnarled: twisted, bent , knotty

A few of the slum children are being described: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.

Right at the back of the badly lit room is an unnoticed young boy. He is probably too young for poverty to have stifled his childish imagination.He daydreams of the squirrels game and about the tree house, absent mentally from the classroom

On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare's head,Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed mapAwarding the world its worldMetaphor: sour cream walls the walls are as awful as sour cream: old, derelict, rundown, ruinsDonations: there are many things that have been donated on the walls.You find:Shakespeares headClear sky at dawnA beautiful Tyrolese valleyThe dome of an ancient city buildingA world mapYou find:Shakespeares headClear sky at dawnA beautiful Tyrolese valleyThe dome of an ancient city buildingA world mapRefers to knowledge, education, learning, culture and sophisticationIn Contrast to the slum is the clear sky as the sun comes up.A nature scene from the Alps. It shows hope and contrasts with the slum the children live in.The dome of an ancient city building stands for civilization and progressThe map gives the world to the childrenThe lines Open-handed map / Awarding the world its world could refer to the map of the world hanging on the wall of the classroom giving/showing (awarding) everyone (the world) the world out there to explore and know (its world). Lines 13 to 16Their life/world :is confined within the narrow streets of the slum enclosed by the dull sky far away from rivers, seas that indicate adventure and learning and from the stars that stand for words that can empower their future. 'Lead sky' means a dull sky or a dimly lit sky.

This symbolises the bleak, dull life and future of the slum children.Lines 17 to 24The poet feels that the head of Shakespeare and the map are cruel temptations for these children living in cramped houses (holes), whose lives revolve around (slyly turns) dullness (fog) and hopelessness (endless night) as they imagine and long for (steal) adventure (ships), for a better future (sun) and for love. Their emaciated wasted bodies compared to slag (waste) heaped together seemed to be wearing the clothes of skin covering their peeping bones and wearing spectacles of steel with cracked glasses looking like bottle bits mended.The slum is their map as big as the doom of the city buildings and their life (time and space) foggy and dim. The poet repeatedly uses the word fog to talk about the unclear, vague and dull life of the slum children.The only hope of a life beyond the slums that enclose their lives like catacombs is some initiative by the governor, inspector of schools or a visitor. The poem ends with the poet fervently hoping that slum children will have access to better education and a better way of life. He uses the words Break o break open to say that they have to break out from the miserable hopeless life of the slum world so that they can wander beyond the slums and their town on to the green fields and golden sands (indicating the unlimited world).These can become their teacher and like dogs lapping up food hungrily, they can learn directly (run naked) from the open pages (leaves) of nature and the world which is sustained (whose language) by the sun standing for energy and life.