Poem -2 An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum, 12th-English

 Updated on 18/07/2021

POEM - An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Stephen Spender)

 

Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.

Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round 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 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 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.

 

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.

All of their time and space are foggy slum.

So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

 

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.

 

Very Short Type Q-Ans.

 

1.  Who is the poet of the Poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’?

Ans. Stephen Spender

 

2.  What is the theme of the POEM?

Ans. Social injustice and class inequality

 

3.  How is the face of the students in the class look?

Ans. Pale and lifeless

 

4.  Why does the poet call the boy ‘the paper-seeming boy’?

Ans. Because he is very thin

 

5.  Who was sitting at the back of the class?

Ans. A sweet little boy

 

6.  How does the poet describe the children’s hair?

Ans. Like rootless weeds

 

7.  Whose picture does the poet see on the wall?

Ans. Shakespeare

 

8.  Where are donations and Shakespeare’s head placed?

Ans. On the wall

 

9.  Explain ‘sour cream walls’.

Ans. he walls have not been painted for a long time

 

10.     How is the future of the children painted?

Ans. Their future is painted with a fog

 

11.     Why is the map a bad example for the children?

Ans. Because it does not show the children’s slums and narrow lanes

 

12.     Towards whom do the governors, teachers and other responsible citizens have a duty?

Ans. Towards slum children

 

13.     What does the map of the world become for the slum children?

Ans. The only window

 

14.     What is the poet’s appeal to the upper class people?

Ans. To help the poor slum children

 

15.     Which people are the possessors of history?

Ans. The people whose language is strong

 

Short Type Q-Ans.

Q. 1 What does the poet want for children of slum? How can their lives to be made to change?

Ans. The poet wants the children of the slum areas to be taken out. He wants these children must to be taken out where they cannot only study from their books but also play and run among the trees. Their living conditions should be improved. Only by then their lives can be made to change.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Q. 2 What does the poet say about the ‘open-handed map’?

Ans. The map has been called ‘open-handed because it shows all the rivers, seas, capes and lands of the world. But the poet says that this world is not for poor children. These maps do not show the children’s slums and narrow lanes.

 

Q. 3 Why does the poet say ‘Shakespeare is wicked’?

Ans. The poet does not really mean to say that Shakespeare is wicked. He means to say that a picture of Shakespeare’s head has no use in a slum. It can be called wicked in the sense that it will tempt the children to steal it away.

 

Q. 4 Why has the map been said to be ‘a bad example?

Ans. The map shows all the seas and lands of the world. But the world of poor children living in a slum is very different from this world. The map of the world is meaningless to them. It does not show the children’s slums and narrow streets.

 

Q. 5 How does the poet describe a tall girl and diseased looking boy?

Ans. The poet descries that a tall girl is sitting with her head weighed down in the clasPoemoom. She was seemed very sad. There was also a boy who looks as thin as paper. His eyes were very small terrible like that of a rat. There is another boy who has a stunted body with twisted bones.

 

Q. 6 Who have a duty towards these poor slum children?

Ans. The poet says all the governors, teachers and other responsible citizens have a duty towards these poor children. He wants these children must to be taken out so that they can study from their books and also play among the trees. Their living conditions should be improved. If they don’t help these children, their future will remain dark.

 

Essay Type Q-Ans.

 

Q. 1 What is the theme of the POEM’ An Elementary school Classroom in a slum’?

                                                Or

        Write in your own words the main ides of the POEM ‘An Elementary school Classroom in a slum’.

Ans. The POEM ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ is written by Stephen Spender. Its theme is social injustice and class inequality. There are two worlds. These worlds are completely different from each other. On the one hand, there is the world of the rich and powerful people. It is the world of art, culture and literature. It has no meaning for slum children. The slum children live in dark, narrow streets. Their future is dark. Thus there is a wide gap between these two worlds. There can be no real progress if this gap is not removed. This is the message the poet gives through this POEM. The poet thinks that these poor children must be taken out of their dirty areas.

 

Important Spellings & word-meanings

 

Spellings

·       Elementary

·       Pallor

·       Stunted

·       Twisted

·       Gnarled

·       Disease

·       Unnoted

·       Squirrel

·       Donations

·       Shakespeare

·       Tempting

·       Slyly

·       Cramped

·       Spectacles

·       Governor

·       Inspector

·       Visitor

·       Catacombs

·       Tongues

·       Language

·       Miserable

 

Word-meanings

§  Weeds – useless plants

§  Gnarled – twisted

§  Stormy – gusty

§  Fog – mist

§  Wicked – bad

§  Slyly – secretly

§  Cramped – narrow

§  Slums  - dirty area

§  Slag – waste material

§  Doom – ruin

§  Catacombs – graves

§  Azure – blue