An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Theme & Analysis)

THEME: Social injustice and class inequalities 

Main Points 

Stanza-1 

• The poem portrays a picture of an elementary school in a slum area.
• Deprived of basic facilities such as-nutritional food, balanced diet, air, sunshine and potable water, children are least interested in studies
• The tall girl and paper seeming boy-all are victims of malnutrition; they are suffering from various diseases
• A boy sitting at the back is dreaming of squirrel's game. He has no interest in class-room activity.

Stanza-2 

• The class-room wall contains pictures and paintings - like Shakespeare's head developed cities with skyscrapers Tyrolese valley aesthetically beautiful, problem free world(cloudless at dawn)-they came by donations.
• These pictures belong to the world of the rich and prosperous.
• The world of these poor and deprived children contrasts with the world depicted on classroom walls.
• The rich have drawn an open handed map which is of no use to them as their world is limited to the end of the street.
• Far from rivers, capes and stars of words, their future is bleak and uncertain.

Stanza-3 

• Shakespeare is wicked and map a bad example as they do not correspond to their limited, narrow world.
• Ships and Sun depicted on the wall tempt them to experience the world of the rich with all its glory.
• However, they cannot get this opportunity as the responsible people do not want it.
• These malnourished children wearing mended glasses oscillate between fog and endless night, having uncertain life with no future.
• They pass all their time and space in the hell (the slum). This hell is a blot on the civilized world.

Stanza-4 

• The poet calls upon governor, inspector and visitor (representing power and position) to review the system before it is too late.
• The revised system should empower these children to break away from the shackles of poverty and deprivation.
• He urges the civilized people to help them enjoy all the facilities such as blue-sky, sun shine, sea-waves, fresh air, good and sufficient nutritious diet.
• Let the pages of wisdom be open for them and their tongues may run freely on the white leaves of books.
• Only those people find a place in history whose language has the warmth and power of the sun.

Detailed Explanation: 

Stanza 1 

• The opening stanza of "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" provides a clear, dreary depiction of the students in the classroom. The opening line of the poem uses an image to contrast the slum children’s faces with those of others. The image used is ‘gusty waves’ indicating brightness, verve and animation. But these are missing from faces of these children.
• The next image of ‘rootless weeds’ produces double effect. ‘Weeds’ indicate being unwanted and ‘rootless’ indicates not belonging. The slum children are like ‘rootless weeds’ unwanted by society and not belonging to society. Their uncombed hair fall on their pale faces.
• The first child is a "tall girl with a weighed-down head." This girl is physically and emotionally exhausted, as if all life has been dredged from her body and sapped from her mind. Her classmates are in no better condition.
• "The paper-seeming boy, with rat's eyes" is paper-thin and weak. His eyes are defensive and scared, like a scavenger, a rat. His eyes might be searching for food like rats’ eyes do. His prospect for survival, let alone success, is bleak.
• Another student, "the stunted, unlucky heir / Of twisted bones," is the victim of a genetic disorder. Spender writes that the boy has inherited his "father's gnarled disease"; he has been left disfigured, trapped in a physically challenged body. Spender has used the word ‘reciting’ to show that in addition of studying/reciting the lesson, the boy shows/recites his inherited crippling disease in the class
• Spender then describes the boy "at back of the dim class," stating, "His eyes live in a dream." This last student represents both a glimmer of hope, has lost his mind to the "squirrel's game." There is little or no expectation that they will succeed, and the best they can hope for is to keep their sanity and not fall victim to a faux reality. Beneath it all, the boy's dreaming eyes may harbor an honest desire for true success.

Stanza 2 

• In the second stanza, Spender describes the classroom and its contents. The classroom is full of "donations." The children are from the lowest class; The classroom is constructed through donations of others' capital. All that the students possess comes from the charity of the bourgeoisie. The maps, books, and "Shakespeare's head" that give the students hope of something outside their dreary existences are gifts from the very hands that clamp them down in their economic and social position.
• The "donations" may give a glimpse of some world to the students, but not of their world. The students do not perceive their world as like the one depicted in the classroom's "donations." ‘Cloudless dawn’ and ‘civilized dome’ suggest the monotonous life in the slum. These slums are surrounded by the civilized city and the children cannot experience the beauty of the sky at dawn and are unaware of it. All around them are concrete structures of the cities. The life in the slum contrasts with the cloudless sky at dawn and concrete structures which override the cities.
• Contradicting their state and the slum children are Shakespeare’s head indicating erudition, the picture of a clear sky at dawn and a beautiful Tyrolese valley indicating beauty of nature and hope, dome of an ancient city building standing for civilization and progress and a world map awarding the children the world.   There is also a picture of abeautiful valley full of sweet fragrant flowers and these children of the slum will never be able to experience this beauty. They are deprived of this beauty as they are condemned to live in the slums amidst garbage. 
• The ‘open-handed map’ in the classroom contrasts with their world. The world given to us by god is full of all the bounties whereas the world of these slum children is full of poverty and hunger. The world which they see is not the real world. Their world is confined to the narrow, dusty streets of the slum.
• The map in the classroom gives them hopes and aspirations and motivates them to explore the world but they will never be able to achieve that world. These children can get the glimpse of the outside world from the windows and it is far beyond their reach. They are far away from nature. These slum children have a bleak and foggy future in store for them. ‘Their future is painted with a fog’ – it is blurred by hopelessness. There is no hope for the slum children. Instead of the normal blue sky they live under the ‘lead sky’ – dark and dull, polluted – shows there is no hope for them. The atmosphere hints at their monotonous life and the slum children remain confined throughout their lives confined to the filth and dirt of the narrow slum streets. They are away from the glory of natural beauty of the rivers, mountains, stars …
• The 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). But the world of the slum children is the limited world that can be seen though the windows of the classroom and not what the map promises. To these children the window which opens to them only shows a grey sky and a foggy future which never changes. Their future is bleak, unknown, and dreary. Their 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. It suggests pollution and burden of industrial world.

Stanza 3 

• The children of the slum are fighting the battle of life unarmed. They are troubled by disease and despair. For them Shakespeare is ‘wicked’ and ‘map’ a bad example’. The literary excellence of Shakespeare and the scenic beauty portrayed in the map cannot relieve them from their despair. For these slum children, literary excellence is a far-fetched thing and hence seems wicked.
• The map on the wall gives them false aspirations as it makes them aware of the beautiful world given by god. The world of these children is confined to the narrow streets of the slums. Therefore, map is ‘a bad example’.
• The ‘ship’, ‘sun’ and ‘love’ symbolize joy and happiness which these children are deprived of. Their only experience is that of hunger and poverty. To reach out to the world beyond, these children are sometimes tempted to adopt wrong means even stealing to fulfill their dreams. Therefore, Shakespeare is wicked.
• These slum children live in cramped holes, striving and struggling for survival in the small, dirty rooms from ‘fog to endless night’ - from foggy mornings till long endless nights, trying to make both ends meet. They live in unhealthy, filthy holes.
• ‘Slyly turn’ – secretly turn around in their cramped holes trying to spend endless nights. The slum children live on ‘slag heaps’ – piles of waste material after metal has been extracted from rock. Their world is full of dirt and garbage and they spend their life raking these ‘slag heaps’.
• The children ‘wear skins peeped through by bones’ – they are very weak and undernourished. They look like skeletons as their bones peep through their thin skin.
• They wear ‘spectacles of steel with mended glass’ – discarded spectacles by the rich, mended (repaired) and worn.
• Their life is like ‘bottle bits on stones – shattered and broken like bits of bottle on a stone. They are deprived of even the basic amenities of life. Their world is comprised of the foggy slums where they live nightmares. Slums are the reality for these children, their home, where they spend their life. For them life is worse than death. These slums are stalking the world just like death stalks victims anytime anywhere.
• The maps displayed in their classroom are no reality for them. They cannot locate their slum in that map. It is urgently required to give these slum inhabitants means and opportunities to lead a dignified and civilized life and bolt out these slums.

Stanza 4 

• Spender comes full circle. He replaces pessimism with hope, a plea for a new proposal for the children. He is petitioning "governor, inspector, visitor" to all to join hands in order to educate and uplift these children...
• The elementary school in the slum exists for name sake. The infrastructure is poor with hardly any serious teaching. The school springs in activity only when a governor, a school inspector or a visitor comes on a round of the school. The administrative machinery of the school also gears up at that time.
• Then the map becomes their window from where they can see the world beyond their slums. Since they are confined to the slums, these sights and glimpses are shut upon them as they are deprived of all opportunities and means.
• Their lives are shut up in the cemeteries of these slums where they slither and slog to make both ends meet. ‘These windows shut upon their lives like catacombs’. (Catacombs are underground tunnels used for burying dead people)
• 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).
• Spender further hopes that the children will be able to "let their tongues / Run naked into books the white and green leaves open." If these children get the opportunity like other children get, their world can also they get a good education they can spread the light and awareness to all. Thus eradicating poverty and darkness.
• ‘Break O break open till they break the town’ – This suggests that the poet hopes that these children will break free from their morbid life, from the chains of the slums. He appeals to those in power to liberate these children from the miserable slums and enable them to breathe in the fresh, beautiful and healthy environment away from the foggy slums. They should be able to bask in the open green fields and let them run free on the golden sands. Their world should not be confined to the horrendous and gory slums.
• The poet visualizes freedom for these children. He wants a carefree life where they get economic and social justice, where they have the right to be happy. These slum children should be able to enjoy the fundamental right of education otherwise their lives will be miserable and unfulfilled without the world of books. They should be able to learn not from the books alone but also from the world, the nature around them.
• The poet ends on a note of positivity and wants opportunities to be available to these children. The people who strive for knowledge are the ones who create history. The ones who are let free are the ones who will create history. People who outshine others, who glow like the sun, who break free from the constraints of their restricted life are the ones who create history.