An Elementary
School Classroom in a Slum
By Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen
Harold Spender was born on February 28, 1909, in London. He attended Oxford
University and fought in the Spanish Civil War. In the 1920s and 1930s he
associated with other poets and socialists, such as W.H. Auden, Christopher
Isherwood, Louis MacNeice, and C. Day Lewis, and his early poetry was often
inspired by social protest. During World War II Spender was a member of the
National Fire Service (1941–44). After the war he made several visits to the
United States, teaching and lecturing at universities, and in 1965 he became
the first non-American to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress
(now laureate consultant in poetry) a position he held for one year. In 1970 he
was appointed professor of English at University College, London; he became
professor emeritus in 1977. He was knighted in 1983. Spender died on July 16,
1995.
Poem: An Elementary
School Classroom in a Slum
Far 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 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.
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 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.
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, and 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, teacher, 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 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 is theirs whose language is the sun.
Theme
In this poem, Stephen Spender deals with the
theme of social injustice and class inequalities. He presents the theme by
talking of two different and incompatible worlds. The world of the rich and the
civilized has nothing to do with the world of narrow lanes and cramped holes.
The gap between these two worlds highlights social disparities and class
inequalities.
Central Idea
Stephen Spender has presented a true picture of
the life of the school children living in the slum of Tyrolese Valley of
Austrian Alpine Province. The children are in a very miserable condition due to
their poverty and illiteracy. They are depressed. Their pale faces express
sadness. They look lean, skinny and bonny. They are like rootless weeds which
can’t resist anything for their existence. They are physically very weak and
under nourished. Spender voices his concern for these children who live all
their life in slums and have no opportunity to enjoy the real blessings of
life. He makes a frantic appeal to the educated and affluent sections of
the society to better the lot of the slum children through education. It will
remove social injustice and class inequality.
Important Extracts
Read the
following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
The
stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones, reciting a father’s
Gnarled
disease, His lessons 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.
Questions:
Q1. Who is the unlucky
heir? Why is he called unlucky?
Ans. The thin
slum boy is the unlucky heir. He is so called because he has inherited poverty,
despair and disease from his parents.
Q2. Who sits back
unnoted? Why?
Ans. A young boy sits
at the back. This boy is different from the others as 'his eyes live' in a
dream - he is dreaming and probably thinking about a better future. He is lost
in his own world, therefore, not sad like the others. This boy thinks of the
'squirrel's game'. He wants to enjoy and play freely like the squirrel in the
garden outside.
Q3. Pick two images
each of despair and disease from these lines.
Ans. The images of
despair are - ‘unlucky heir’, ‘dim class’, and that of diseases are - ‘twisted
bones, gnarled disease’.
Read the
following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
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.
Questions
Q1. Who are these children?
Ans. These are the
slum children of Tyrol Valley.
Q2. What is their
world like?
Ans. The school
windows are their world because they cannot move beyond them.
Q3. What kind of future
does the poet foresee for them?
Ans. The future of
these children is quite dim. As we can't see things in the fog, in the same way
the future of these children is looming under darkness. Their future is bleak.
Q4. Why does the poet
say that the narrow street is sealed?
Ans. The narrow street
is sealed as these provide no opportunity to make an access to the outer world
of wisdom.
Read the
following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
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 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.
Questions:
Q1. What should they
break?
Ans. They should break
all barriers and obstructions that hinder the school children’s growth.
Q2. What kind of
a world does the poet imagine for these children?
Ans. The poet imagines
a world where these children run around in the fields or on sea beaches in a
carefree manner. They should also enjoy freedom of knowledge and expression.
Q3. What does the
word ‘sun’ symbolize?
Ans. ‘Sun’ symbolizes
light and brightness which, comes from education. Proper education alone can
improve the lives of these slum children.
Read the
following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
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 white green leaves open
History
is theirs whose language is the son.
Questions:
Q1. Who can improve the
lot of the poor slum children?
Ans. The rulers,
the educationists, the teachers and the general public can pool
their efforts to give a better life to the poor slum children.
Q2. What kind of life
do they live?
Ans.
They are shut up in their dim classrooms and small hovels like dead bodies in
the grave.
Q3. What is the poet's
appeal to the upper class people?
Ans. The poet urges
them to bring some light into the lives of the slum children. They may be
imparted education in a healthy atmosphere.
Q4. What is the poet's
advice?
Ans.
The poet suggests that the slum children should not only be educated properly
but also removed from their dirty surroundings to sunny and green fields.
Q5. Explain: "History is theirs whose language is the sun."
Ans. The language that has
warmth and power of the sun only can mould and write history.
Short Answer
Type Questions
Q. What
does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made
to change?
The poet wants an improvement in the quality of
the lives of the slum children. He feels that the government has a moral
obligation to provide a meaningful education to these children and to break
down the barriers that stand in the way of improving their lives.
Flamingo (English Reader)
Prose Section
|
Poetry Section
|
2. Lost Spring
| |
3. Deep Water
| |
4. The Rattrap
| |
5. Indigo
| |
6. Going Places
|