8/20/2019 1430542582An Elementary School Classroom in Slums

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BAL BHAVAN PUBLIC SCHOOLCLASS- XII

ENGLISH

An Elementary School Classroom in slums

- 

Stephen Spender

Analysis:-

The poem deals with the theme of social injustice and class inequalities. The poem expresses

the poet’s ideological positions on government, economics and education. The poem was

written in support of the civil right movement in America. The poet was concerned about the

racial discrimination and the denial of opportunities to the poor people living in pathetic

conditions. He attacks the capitalistic economics which is driven by profit motive and which

helped only rich to become richer while pushing poor to a corner where all the windows ofopportunities are shut upon them. The poem is a socialistic proclamation against capitalism and

social injustice in general. According to the poet, the fruits of education and freedom should

reach the downtrodden society if has to be of any use to them.

The poem in first stanza describes an elementary school in a slum, using the imagery of despair

and disease. The children’s faces are described as ‘rootless weeds’ which implies that they are

unwanted and ugly just like weeds in a garden. They are rootless and seem to lack stability and

are malnourished. The hair falls unkempt around their pale faces. The tall girl hangs her head as

if she is exhausted and is ashamed for have not learnt her lessons due to daily chores ofhousehold works she is burdened with. The poet goes on to expand this theme of miserable

existence of slum dwellers’ children by suggesting that they are under- developed and are like

rodents. A very sickly lean boy has ‘rat’s eyes’. The children are underdeveloped and have

inherited their diseased bones from their parents. This implies diseased generations. The

classroom is equally dim and pathetic. There is one child, who is sweet and young. His ‘eyes

live in dream’. The child is lost in dreaming about squirrel games, playing in tree houses, which

ironically reflects the misery of his current life. It is also suggestive of the world of dreams that

he lives. The first stanza is suggestive of despair in the lives of slum dwellers.

The second stanza describes the condition of classroom they are studying in, wherein the wallshave turned yellowish since they have not been whitewashed for long. It is also suggestive of

the despondent look of the students. The poet sees the lives of slum children as far removed

from that represented in school books, maps, photographs of alpine valley, or a bust of

Shakespeare. If education is supposed to open ‘doors’ or ‘windows’ to other worlds, surely it

has failed, in this instance, to liberate these children, both physically and intellectually, from

their restricted impoverished existence in the catacombs of modern industrial towns. Thus, it

seems that ‘civilization’—as represented by ‘Shakespeare’ and the pretty ‘Tyrolese valley’ has

 presented a fraud image to these children, as they have never experienced such world. Their

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future is rather restricted to world which is bleak and foggy. The narrow road which is visible

from the classroom window do not lead them to a better future and these children are far

removed from the beautiful enlightened world {Gusty waves}. The world of slums is as the poet

acknowledges, ‘far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words’.

The third stanza raises a poignant question, the relevance of donations in the classroom, for

these children Shakespeare is wicked, as his books and poems make them dream of liberation

from their regular lives, moreover they are unaware of his identity. Maps of foreign lands are‘bad examples’, as they have never seen those lands and rather they give them an idea of escape

in ‘ships’ from lead skies to sun filled worlds, and fill them up with ‘love’ for life, rather than

dread or disillusionment. The ‘lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes’ are those of the

children whom the poet ironically dubs as ‘sly’ in keeping with the earlier descriptions of

‘wicked’ and ‘tempting them to steal’. These children are however doomed to ‘cramped holes’

in limited, restricted lives that ‘progress’ from ignorance, ‘fog’, ‘to death’ and ‘endless night’

The children are mere skin and bones—their map of the future is irreparably blotted by fate.

The last stanza pictures the imprisoned minds and lives of school children as being magicallyreleased from their bondages. It is a lyrical appeal to the governors, inspectors and visitors to

rescue the poor and oppressed from the tomb of class discrimination and show these children

the green fields and make their world a better place to live. He then imagines the liberated

children running on the golden sand and exploring the books. It is then that they will be truly

liberated and the inextinguishable spirit of human creativity abides in those ‘whose language is

the sun’, referring to strength, power and attainment of real knowledge.