EXPLANATION : AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM
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 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 wary hope and a shiver of mental damnation. It is unclear whether he is dreaming of a life he may achieve or has lost his mind to the "squirrel's game." This vague distinction between these two conflicting interpretations exposes all the students' futures: 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. This last boy, "unnoted, sweet and young," may understand his position in society and see the sadness of his fellow students. With this understanding, he may represent hope for social change, instead of merely being an individual who has lost his mind.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza, the poet describes the slum classroom in Tyrol- A suburb in Austria and the classroom contents. The word ‘sour’ used to describe the cream walls of the classroom indicates its derelict condition. The classroom is full of "donations." The children are from the lowest class; they are the children of proletarians. The classroom is constructed through donations of others' capital. All that the students possess comes from their oppressors, the bourgeoisie. The upper class, which holds these children in their place, also offers them their only tools to escape. 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." 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. 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 dullsky or a dimly lit sky. It suggests pollutin and burden of industrial world.
This symbolises the bleak, dull life and future of the slum children. The children in "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" are trapped by their social and economic status as children of proletarians.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza, Spender responds cynically to the reality of the students' futures. He calls Shakespeare "wicked" and the map a "bad example." He writes that "ships and sun and love" are "tempting them [the students] to steal." The world presented by the bourgeoisie to the students in "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" is intended to lure them and drag them into a life of crime..
Although Spender voices cynicism, he does not lose sight of the true victims of the injustice of the class struggle: the children. In this stanza, he continues to describe the children "on their slag heap." Their emaciated wasted bodies are compared to slag (waste) heaped together. He returns to their thin, malnourished bodies, stating that they "wear skins peeped through by bones."." Even their glasses are repaired ones, as they cannot afford new ones-the lenses are like broken pieces of bottle. Spender is making a resounding humanist statement about the treatment of children in this poem. It appears that he is more sickened by humanity's disregard for the children than by the social and economic framework that has doomed these children to the slums.
Stanza 4
In the final stanza, Spender comes full circle. He replaces cynicism with hope, a plea for a new manifesto for the children. He is petitioning "governor, inspector, visitor" to all to join hands in order to educate and uplift these children.. 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
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT
.1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces…………………..
………………………Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
Q1 Why is the head of the tall girl “ weighed down”?
Ans. The head of the tall girl is weighed down because her life might be burdened with poverty , difficulties and responsibilities. Probably she is feeling depressed, ill and exhausted.
Q2. What do you understand by “The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes”?
Ans. The phrase “paper seeming boy” suggests that the boy is very thin and emaciated because of undernourishment. His eyes are compared to those of rats because his eyes are timid and searching for food and security like the eyes of a rat are.
Q3 Who is the “unlucky heir” and what has he inherited?
Ans.The underdeveloped boy who is reading the lesson from his desk is referred to as “unlucky heir”. He has inherited twisted bones from his father. Along with his disease, he has inherited his poverty.
Q4. Whose ‘eyes live in a dream’ and what is his dream about?
Ans. A sweet young boy sitting at the back of the class is referred to here. He dreams of playing like a squirrel in the lap of nature rather than sitting in small ,dim and dingy classroom.
Q5. What does the image “rootless weeds” suggest?
Q6 What is the stunted boy reciting?(father’s disease , his lesson)
Q7 Why is the class described referred to as ‘dim’? (no proper facility of light)
Q8 Pick two images each of despair and disease from these lines.
2. 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 lead sky far far from rivers,
capes and stars of words
Q1. What do the classroom walls have?
Ans.The walls of the classroom have a portrait of Shakespeare, pictures of building with domes ,sunrise and beautiful alpine valley ,and world map.
Q2. Why does the poet refer to the Tyrolese valley in these lines?
Ans. The beautiful Tyrolese valley is in sharp contrast to dim and dingy slums. . The life of slum children is far removed from the life represented in the photograph of alpine valley as they never get to enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains and the flowery valley.
Q3.What is the future of these children?
Ans. The future of these children is bleak and uncertain.
Q4.What are the narrow street and lead sky indicative of?
Ans. Narrow streets are indicative of restricted and confined lives of slum children . Lead sky signifies dullness, dreariness and despair invading the lives of the slum dwellers.
Q5 Who are these children? What is their world like?
(These children are poor and deprived children - slum school, dismal,
impoverised world, authorities - apathetic unfair)
Q6. Explain: ‘civilized dome riding all cities.
Q7Why is the ‘window’ depicted as the world of the children?
Q8. What is the specialty of the Tyrolese valley?
( It is full of coloured flowers & resonated with the bells.)
3. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example…………………..
………………………………..So blot their maps with slums as big as doom
Q1 Why is Shakespeare described as wicked? 2
– no correlation between Shakespeare’s works and the life of the slum children
– classic literature of Shakespeare beyond the understanding of slum children
– beautiful world depicted by Shakespeare is denied to the slum children
- Arouses the desire among the students to taste the joy of higher education, which for them seems to be unattainable
Q2 What does the reference to 'slag heap' mean ? 1
( – miserable condition of the slum children / unhygienic conditions / extreme
poverty / waste / rejected / neglected / considered useless)
Q3.Why is the map a bad example?
Ans.. The map is a bad example as it gives the children an idea of viewing vast and bountiful world , which for them is a distant dream. In order to fulfil their desires and aspirations they adopt illegal ways.
Q4.How does the poet describe their present condition in these lines?
Ans. The slum children live in dingy, unhygienic holes which they call homes. They lead miserable and pathetic lives devoid of hope.
Q5.Explain “from fog to endless night.”
Ans. “Fog” stands for obscurity and uncertainty and “endless night” signifies endless darkness and misery. The phrase means that slum children have no hope of progress and prosperity. They simply exist in their cramped holes stumbling from one despair to another.
Q6. How are the children described in these lines?
Ans. Children wear torn clothes and their bones often protrude from them.
Even their glasses they wear are repaired ones, as they cannot afford new ones.
Q7 Which two images are used to describe the slums?
Ans.-slag heap / foggy slums /slums as big as doom
Q8 What sort of life do these children lead?
Ans. dirty/ unhygenic /miserable/ patheic /full of woes and wants / uncertain future / blotted / life of disease and dispair / impoverished / bones peeing through skins / spectacles of mended glass / their time and space are foggy
Q9 Which figure of speech is used in the last line?
-simile
Q10Explain ‘skin peeped through by bones’
Q11Why is the mended glass referred to as ‘bottle bits of stones’?
4. “Unless, governor, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs
Q1Why does the poet invoke ‘governor, ‘inspector’ and ‘visitor’?
The poet invokes the ‘governor, ‘inspector’ and ‘visitor’ because they are the powerful people who can bring about a drastic change in the miserable lives of the slum children. They can remove the social injustice and class inequalities.
Q2 What have ‘these windows’ done to their lives?
These windows have cramped their lives, stunted their physical and mental growth shutting them inside filthy and dingy holes.
Q3 What do you understand by catacombs?
Catacombs are long underground graves. Here they stand for the dirty slums which block their progress.
Q4 Which literary device has been used? Explain.
Simile has been used to describe the oppressive effect of the surroundings on their pathetic lives. The simile is: ‘these windows that shut upon their lives like catacombs.’
5. 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.
Q1To whom does 'they' refer? 1 (– refers to governor, inspector, visitors)
Q2 What would they break? 1
( – break the mental and physical barriers / break boundaries of discrimination)
Q3What other freedom should they enjoy? 2
( – free and happy life away from slum
– freedom to education
-Freedom of speech and expression so as to become responsible citizens and powerful speakers
– freedom to explore the world / gold sand / green fields
– opportunity to prosper)
Q4 What is expected of the governor, inspector and visitor?
Ans. The governor, inspector and the visitor need to take appropriate steps to break the barriers that stand in the way of the progress of the slum children .They need to release the children from poverty , get them educated and give them opportunity to experience the beauty of the world.
Q5 What are the windows doing in their lives at present?
Ans.The windows offering the view of dirty surroundings have cramped their lives ,and blocked their mental and physical development. They have shut the children inside the drab holes like the dead bodies are shut in underground graves.
Q6.What is meant by white and green leaves?
White and green leaves refer to the colourful pages of the book which the poet wishes to provide to the students.
Q7. ‘History is theirs whose language is the sun’. Explain.
This statement means that those who have the power and confidence in speech to influence others create history. One can make a mark only if one can outshine others. Education only can give them power and strength like the sun which will bring about a change in the lives of the people.
NCERT QUESTIONS
Q1 What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’? Why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls?
Ans. The colour of ‘sour cream’ is off white. The poet refers to the dull and pale looking walls to suggest dull and dreary atmosphere of the classroom. It also suggests hopelessness and grimness that engulf students’ life.
Q2 The walls of the classroom are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’ ,’buildings with domes’ , ‘world maps’ and ‘beautiful valleys’. How do these contrast with the world of these children?
Ans. The pictures present the world full of richness ,beauty and progress. On the other hand the lives of the slum children comprise of small, dim and dingy huts as well as narrow and dirty lanes. The world of these children is full of dullness, hopelessness and hunger.
EXTRA QUESTIONS
.Q1 What does the map on the wall signify?
Ans. The map signifies vast and beautiful world. It also represents limitless opportunities of which the slum children are deprived of.
Q2. What is the theme of the poem?
In the poem, Spender depicts the pathetic life of slum children who are victims of social injustice and class inequalities that prevails in society. The poem is a bitter criticism on the state of education in elementary schools in slum areas.
Q3 Elaborate on the optimistic note of the poem.
The poem begins with despair and ends on an optimistic note. According to the poet, the slum children’s miserable plight could be improved if the powerful people take an initiative to bring them out of the catacomb of poverty and provide them a proper education.
Q4. How does the poet see the slum children as victims of social injustice?
The slum children are deprived of good educational opportunities. They study in dim and dingy classroom having colourless walls. Their impoverished and emaciated condition shows that they are not provided with proper health facilities. They are deprived of the bounties of the world and their world comprised of narrow and dirty lanes.
Q5. Explain : ‘Far from gusty waves’.
‘Gusty waves’ represents energetic and cheerful children who are like strong waves. The slum children are unlike the usual children. They are undernourished, impoverished and enervated.
Q6 What does the poet wish for the children?
– (for the governors, inspectors, visitors / authorities to bring about a change
– to widen their horizons
– to take the children closer to nature / liberate them from their miserable condition
– provide good education
Should be given opportunities in life)
Q7 How does the poet describe the class-room walls?
- sour cream walls / bleak / gloomy/ depressing / pictures of Shakespeare , ship, sun ,city, flowers , Tyrolese Valley
Q8 The poet says,” and yet for these children, these windows, not this map, their world.” Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?
-world of slums , narrow strret ,poverty
-Inaccessible world- world of rich/ world outside the slum / green fields / open sky / world of books
Q9 “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom,” says Stephen
Spender. What does the poet want to convey?
-Slum are a blot on the map / blot out these slums from the map
-no representations of the slums on the world map of big cities /map is blotted with all miseries associated with slums
- the poverty and misery of slum children
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 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 wary hope and a shiver of mental damnation. It is unclear whether he is dreaming of a life he may achieve or has lost his mind to the "squirrel's game." This vague distinction between these two conflicting interpretations exposes all the students' futures: 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. This last boy, "unnoted, sweet and young," may understand his position in society and see the sadness of his fellow students. With this understanding, he may represent hope for social change, instead of merely being an individual who has lost his mind.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza, the poet describes the slum classroom in Tyrol- A suburb in Austria and the classroom contents. The word ‘sour’ used to describe the cream walls of the classroom indicates its derelict condition. The classroom is full of "donations." The children are from the lowest class; they are the children of proletarians. The classroom is constructed through donations of others' capital. All that the students possess comes from their oppressors, the bourgeoisie. The upper class, which holds these children in their place, also offers them their only tools to escape. 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." 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. 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 dullsky or a dimly lit sky. It suggests pollutin and burden of industrial world.
This symbolises the bleak, dull life and future of the slum children. The children in "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" are trapped by their social and economic status as children of proletarians.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza, Spender responds cynically to the reality of the students' futures. He calls Shakespeare "wicked" and the map a "bad example." He writes that "ships and sun and love" are "tempting them [the students] to steal." The world presented by the bourgeoisie to the students in "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" is intended to lure them and drag them into a life of crime..
Although Spender voices cynicism, he does not lose sight of the true victims of the injustice of the class struggle: the children. In this stanza, he continues to describe the children "on their slag heap." Their emaciated wasted bodies are compared to slag (waste) heaped together. He returns to their thin, malnourished bodies, stating that they "wear skins peeped through by bones."." Even their glasses are repaired ones, as they cannot afford new ones-the lenses are like broken pieces of bottle. Spender is making a resounding humanist statement about the treatment of children in this poem. It appears that he is more sickened by humanity's disregard for the children than by the social and economic framework that has doomed these children to the slums.
Stanza 4
In the final stanza, Spender comes full circle. He replaces cynicism with hope, a plea for a new manifesto for the children. He is petitioning "governor, inspector, visitor" to all to join hands in order to educate and uplift these children.. 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
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT
.1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces…………………..
………………………Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
Q1 Why is the head of the tall girl “ weighed down”?
Ans. The head of the tall girl is weighed down because her life might be burdened with poverty , difficulties and responsibilities. Probably she is feeling depressed, ill and exhausted.
Q2. What do you understand by “The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes”?
Ans. The phrase “paper seeming boy” suggests that the boy is very thin and emaciated because of undernourishment. His eyes are compared to those of rats because his eyes are timid and searching for food and security like the eyes of a rat are.
Q3 Who is the “unlucky heir” and what has he inherited?
Ans.The underdeveloped boy who is reading the lesson from his desk is referred to as “unlucky heir”. He has inherited twisted bones from his father. Along with his disease, he has inherited his poverty.
Q4. Whose ‘eyes live in a dream’ and what is his dream about?
Ans. A sweet young boy sitting at the back of the class is referred to here. He dreams of playing like a squirrel in the lap of nature rather than sitting in small ,dim and dingy classroom.
Q5. What does the image “rootless weeds” suggest?
Q6 What is the stunted boy reciting?(father’s disease , his lesson)
Q7 Why is the class described referred to as ‘dim’? (no proper facility of light)
Q8 Pick two images each of despair and disease from these lines.
2. 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 lead sky far far from rivers,
capes and stars of words
Q1. What do the classroom walls have?
Ans.The walls of the classroom have a portrait of Shakespeare, pictures of building with domes ,sunrise and beautiful alpine valley ,and world map.
Q2. Why does the poet refer to the Tyrolese valley in these lines?
Ans. The beautiful Tyrolese valley is in sharp contrast to dim and dingy slums. . The life of slum children is far removed from the life represented in the photograph of alpine valley as they never get to enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains and the flowery valley.
Q3.What is the future of these children?
Ans. The future of these children is bleak and uncertain.
Q4.What are the narrow street and lead sky indicative of?
Ans. Narrow streets are indicative of restricted and confined lives of slum children . Lead sky signifies dullness, dreariness and despair invading the lives of the slum dwellers.
Q5 Who are these children? What is their world like?
(These children are poor and deprived children - slum school, dismal,
impoverised world, authorities - apathetic unfair)
Q6. Explain: ‘civilized dome riding all cities.
Q7Why is the ‘window’ depicted as the world of the children?
Q8. What is the specialty of the Tyrolese valley?
( It is full of coloured flowers & resonated with the bells.)
3. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example…………………..
………………………………..So blot their maps with slums as big as doom
Q1 Why is Shakespeare described as wicked? 2
– no correlation between Shakespeare’s works and the life of the slum children
– classic literature of Shakespeare beyond the understanding of slum children
– beautiful world depicted by Shakespeare is denied to the slum children
- Arouses the desire among the students to taste the joy of higher education, which for them seems to be unattainable
Q2 What does the reference to 'slag heap' mean ? 1
( – miserable condition of the slum children / unhygienic conditions / extreme
poverty / waste / rejected / neglected / considered useless)
Q3.Why is the map a bad example?
Ans.. The map is a bad example as it gives the children an idea of viewing vast and bountiful world , which for them is a distant dream. In order to fulfil their desires and aspirations they adopt illegal ways.
Q4.How does the poet describe their present condition in these lines?
Ans. The slum children live in dingy, unhygienic holes which they call homes. They lead miserable and pathetic lives devoid of hope.
Q5.Explain “from fog to endless night.”
Ans. “Fog” stands for obscurity and uncertainty and “endless night” signifies endless darkness and misery. The phrase means that slum children have no hope of progress and prosperity. They simply exist in their cramped holes stumbling from one despair to another.
Q6. How are the children described in these lines?
Ans. Children wear torn clothes and their bones often protrude from them.
Even their glasses they wear are repaired ones, as they cannot afford new ones.
Q7 Which two images are used to describe the slums?
Ans.-slag heap / foggy slums /slums as big as doom
Q8 What sort of life do these children lead?
Ans. dirty/ unhygenic /miserable/ patheic /full of woes and wants / uncertain future / blotted / life of disease and dispair / impoverished / bones peeing through skins / spectacles of mended glass / their time and space are foggy
Q9 Which figure of speech is used in the last line?
-simile
Q10Explain ‘skin peeped through by bones’
Q11Why is the mended glass referred to as ‘bottle bits of stones’?
4. “Unless, governor, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs
Q1Why does the poet invoke ‘governor, ‘inspector’ and ‘visitor’?
The poet invokes the ‘governor, ‘inspector’ and ‘visitor’ because they are the powerful people who can bring about a drastic change in the miserable lives of the slum children. They can remove the social injustice and class inequalities.
Q2 What have ‘these windows’ done to their lives?
These windows have cramped their lives, stunted their physical and mental growth shutting them inside filthy and dingy holes.
Q3 What do you understand by catacombs?
Catacombs are long underground graves. Here they stand for the dirty slums which block their progress.
Q4 Which literary device has been used? Explain.
Simile has been used to describe the oppressive effect of the surroundings on their pathetic lives. The simile is: ‘these windows that shut upon their lives like catacombs.’
5. 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.
Q1To whom does 'they' refer? 1 (– refers to governor, inspector, visitors)
Q2 What would they break? 1
( – break the mental and physical barriers / break boundaries of discrimination)
Q3What other freedom should they enjoy? 2
( – free and happy life away from slum
– freedom to education
-Freedom of speech and expression so as to become responsible citizens and powerful speakers
– freedom to explore the world / gold sand / green fields
– opportunity to prosper)
Q4 What is expected of the governor, inspector and visitor?
Ans. The governor, inspector and the visitor need to take appropriate steps to break the barriers that stand in the way of the progress of the slum children .They need to release the children from poverty , get them educated and give them opportunity to experience the beauty of the world.
Q5 What are the windows doing in their lives at present?
Ans.The windows offering the view of dirty surroundings have cramped their lives ,and blocked their mental and physical development. They have shut the children inside the drab holes like the dead bodies are shut in underground graves.
Q6.What is meant by white and green leaves?
White and green leaves refer to the colourful pages of the book which the poet wishes to provide to the students.
Q7. ‘History is theirs whose language is the sun’. Explain.
This statement means that those who have the power and confidence in speech to influence others create history. One can make a mark only if one can outshine others. Education only can give them power and strength like the sun which will bring about a change in the lives of the people.
NCERT QUESTIONS
Q1 What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’? Why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls?
Ans. The colour of ‘sour cream’ is off white. The poet refers to the dull and pale looking walls to suggest dull and dreary atmosphere of the classroom. It also suggests hopelessness and grimness that engulf students’ life.
Q2 The walls of the classroom are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’ ,’buildings with domes’ , ‘world maps’ and ‘beautiful valleys’. How do these contrast with the world of these children?
Ans. The pictures present the world full of richness ,beauty and progress. On the other hand the lives of the slum children comprise of small, dim and dingy huts as well as narrow and dirty lanes. The world of these children is full of dullness, hopelessness and hunger.
EXTRA QUESTIONS
.Q1 What does the map on the wall signify?
Ans. The map signifies vast and beautiful world. It also represents limitless opportunities of which the slum children are deprived of.
Q2. What is the theme of the poem?
In the poem, Spender depicts the pathetic life of slum children who are victims of social injustice and class inequalities that prevails in society. The poem is a bitter criticism on the state of education in elementary schools in slum areas.
Q3 Elaborate on the optimistic note of the poem.
The poem begins with despair and ends on an optimistic note. According to the poet, the slum children’s miserable plight could be improved if the powerful people take an initiative to bring them out of the catacomb of poverty and provide them a proper education.
Q4. How does the poet see the slum children as victims of social injustice?
The slum children are deprived of good educational opportunities. They study in dim and dingy classroom having colourless walls. Their impoverished and emaciated condition shows that they are not provided with proper health facilities. They are deprived of the bounties of the world and their world comprised of narrow and dirty lanes.
Q5. Explain : ‘Far from gusty waves’.
‘Gusty waves’ represents energetic and cheerful children who are like strong waves. The slum children are unlike the usual children. They are undernourished, impoverished and enervated.
Q6 What does the poet wish for the children?
– (for the governors, inspectors, visitors / authorities to bring about a change
– to widen their horizons
– to take the children closer to nature / liberate them from their miserable condition
– provide good education
Should be given opportunities in life)
Q7 How does the poet describe the class-room walls?
- sour cream walls / bleak / gloomy/ depressing / pictures of Shakespeare , ship, sun ,city, flowers , Tyrolese Valley
Q8 The poet says,” and yet for these children, these windows, not this map, their world.” Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?
-world of slums , narrow strret ,poverty
-Inaccessible world- world of rich/ world outside the slum / green fields / open sky / world of books
Q9 “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom,” says Stephen
Spender. What does the poet want to convey?
-Slum are a blot on the map / blot out these slums from the map
-no representations of the slums on the world map of big cities /map is blotted with all miseries associated with slums
- the poverty and misery of slum children
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