Literatus

 

THEME : Social injustice and class inequalitie s  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 th...

Structure ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ by Stephen Spender is in free verse. There are some imperfect rhyme schemes in the poem. While taking the poem as a whole the rhyme scheme does not seem to follow a specific order. The loose lines without any intricately woven decorum depict the poet’s disillusionment of any kind of order. Whatsoever, the text of the poem contains four stanzas. Each stanza of the poem consists of eight lines having uneven line lengths. Poetic Devices, Stanza by Stanza ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum‘ by Stephen Spender contains some important poetic devices which bring out the internal meaning of the lines. The literary devices used in each stanza are significant concerning the theme of the poem. Stanza 1 "Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces. (…) Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this." In the first stanza of the poem, Stephen Spender uses a simile while comparing the “children’s faces” to “rootless weeds”. ...

Summary Stanza 1 "Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces. (…) Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this." The opening stanza of "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" provides a clear, dreary depiction of the students in the classroom. 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 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 then descri...

Introduction: "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" was first published in 1964 in Stephen Spender's Selected Poems. The poem has since appeared in several collections, including Collected Poems 1928–1985, published in 1985. "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" is perhaps the best example of Spender's political voice resonating throughout a poem. In this poem, Spender expresses his ideological positions on government, economics, and education. The students in this classroom are underprivileged and malnourished. The capitalistic government is supposed to supply equal opportunity for education, but the classroom in the slum offers little hope for change or progress for its lower-class students. This poem, written during the time of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, is fitting both in its commentary about race issues in American education and as a Socialist proclamation against capitalism and social injustice in general. Although Spende...