An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
By - Stephen Spender
By - Stephen Spender
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.
Questions
1. What do the children’s faces look like in the classroom?
Ans: Their faces are pale and dull, like rootless weeds.
2. Why are the children compared to ‘rootless weeds’?
Ans: Because they look weak, unwanted, and uncared for.
3. Who is sitting with her head down?
Ans: A girl with a head “weighed down” like a rootless weed, indicating sadness and exhaustion.
4. What does the boy with the “rat’s eyes” symbolize?
Ans: He symbolizes greed, hunger, and survival instinct.
5. What is the condition of the ‘stunted boy’?
Ans: He is thin, malnourished, and sickly, symbolizing lack of nourishment and opportunities.
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 ip with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.
Questions
1. What do the “sour cream walls” signify?
Ans: They signify decay, dullness, and neglect in the classroom.
2. Why is Shakespeare’s head mentioned?
Ans: It shows contrast between the ideal world of literature and the harsh reality of slum children.
3. What is the irony in displaying beautiful maps in the classroom?
Ans: The maps show a rich and beautiful world, but the children’s real world is full of poverty and hunger.
4. What does the “sky at night” and “Tyrolese valley” symbolize?
Ans: They symbolize beauty and prosperity, which are out of reach for these children.
5. What does the poet criticize in this stanza?
Ans: He criticizes the mismatch between the decorative classroom walls and the children’s miserable reality.
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.
AII of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.
Questions
1. Why does the poet call Shakespeare “wicked”?
Ans: Because Shakespeare’s works represent dreams and ambitions which are meaningless for the poor children.
2. What does “map a bad example” mean?
Ans: Maps show rich and beautiful places that only highlight the children’s deprivation.
3. What do “ships, sun, love” represent?
Ans: They represent wealth, prosperity, and joy — things denied to slum children.
4. What kind of life do slum children lead?
Ans: They live in dark, narrow lanes, with bleak future and constant hunger.
5. What is meant by ‘slag heap’ here?
Ans: It refers to the children’s wasted, burdened bodies and unhealthy surroundings.
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.
Questions
1. What solution does the poet suggest for the condition of slum children?
Ans: They should be freed from their narrow slums and given opportunities to explore the world.
2. What is meant by “governor, inspector, visitor”?
Ans: People in power and authority who can bring change.
3. How can maps become “their windows”?
Ans: If children get education and freedom, maps will open opportunities for them to see and explore the world.
4. What does “green fields” and “gold sands” symbolize?
Ans: They symbolize prosperity, hope, and a bright future.
5. What is the central message in the last stanza?
Ans: Education is the key to break the chains of poverty and bring equality and freedom.
Gusty waves → lively, energetic movement of life.
Rootless weeds → unwanted plants; here it means unhealthy, neglected children.
Pallor → pale, lifeless appearance.
Stunted, unlucky heir → a sickly, weak child, inheriting poverty.
Rat’s eyes → symbol of hunger, greed, and survival instinct.
Gnarled disease → twisted, deformed condition due to malnutrition.
Sour cream walls → dull, dirty, yellowish walls, showing decay.
Donations → pictures and maps given to the school by outsiders.
Shakespeare’s head → portrait of Shakespeare symbolizing high literature.
Cloudless dawn → a symbol of hope and new beginning.
Civilized dome riding all cities → the developed, modern world shown in the maps.
Tyrolese valley → a beautiful valley in Austria, symbol of beauty and prosperity.
Wicked → cruel, harmful (used for Shakespeare as his works are useless for slum children).
Map a bad example → false hope; the maps show a world unreachable to them.
Slag heap → pile of industrial waste; here it refers to dull, burdened bodies of children.
Bones peeping through skin → extreme malnutrition.
Foggy slums → dark, polluted, suffocating environment of poverty.
Endless night → symbol of hopelessness and suffering.
Governor, inspector, visitor → people in authority who can bring change.
Break O break open → appeal to break the barriers of poverty and ignorance.
Azure → blue sky, symbol of freedom and vast opportunities.
Gold sands → prosperity, wealth, and bright future.
History theirs whose language is the sun → those who enjoy freedom and knowledge create history.