The poem describes an elementary school classroom located in a slum. The children live in cramped, dirty homes and wear tattered clothing and mended glasses. They see a map on the classroom wall that depicts beautiful places, but it only reminds them of what they do not have access to. The poet appeals to government officials to help open the children's world and take them from the darkness of the slums to experience nature, education, and opportunity so they can create their own history.

1. KARTIKTYAGI43
AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
IN A SLUM
AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
IN A SLUM

2. AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
IN A SLUM
By Stephen Spender
MODULE : 2

3. 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
Wicked: evil
Slyly: in a manipulative manner
Cramped: confined
Slag: stony waste matter
Mended: repaired
Blot: to mark with a spot
Doom: disaster
STANZA -3

4. SHAKESPEARE IS WICKED
The poet further says that these children living
in the slum area have faced so many hardships
that they feel every other person to be their
enemy.
For them Shakespeare is an evil man because
he portrays a world of optimism and hope and
love in his writings which is in complete
contrast to the bleak future and a life full of
gloom and despair, which the slum children
lead.

5. They don’t find the map to be a good
example
The map on the wall gives them false hopes as it
makes them aware of the beautiful world given by
god and makes them feel sorry that they are far
away from this world which is full of opportunities.
The scenic beauty portrayed in the map cannot give
any respite to them from their despair, instead it
only adds to their miseries.
They were never liked or loved by anyone.
Therefore they hate almost everyone.

6. They feel deprived of all exiting
sensations of the sun, the ships, and
the emotions of love.
The ‘ship’, ‘sun’ and ‘love’ symbolize
joy and happiness which these
children can only dream of .
Their desire forces them to snatch and
steal what they can't have and thus end
up criminals.

7. THEIR CRAMPED HOLES
These slum children live in cramped
holes(dingy, congested huts) ,
striving and struggling for survival in
the small, dirty rooms from ‘fog to
endless night’ – from foggy mornings
till long endless nights, trying to meet
both ends, trying to earn their daily
bread .

8. These kids are so thin that one can easily see their
bones through the thin layer of skin. Their skin is
like the thin layer of cloth and the bones beneath are
visible through the skin. These kids suffer from
malnutrition.
They wear ‘spectacles of steel with mended glass’ –
discarded spectacles by the rich, mended (repaired)
and worn.
The map of their future are already blotted with
gloom. Slums are the reality for these children, their
home, where they spend their life.

9. Literary devices:
Metaphor: 1. Their homes are very small like holes
(cramped holes)
2. From fog to endless night(future of the children)
3. Wear skins peeped through by bones (emaciated
bodies)
Simile- like bottle bits on stones
Alliteration: Use of ‘f’ sound (From fog)
Symbol: ships (adventure, beautiful lands),
Sun(enlightenment, purity), map with slums as big
as doom( the grim reality)

10. 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.
Catacombs: tomb, cemetery
Azure: deep blue
STANZA -4

11. The poet says that the government should take
notice of the problems being faced by these kids.
There is a need to break the restrictions which
are put on them due to poverty and lack of
resources.
He wants the governor and people in power to
help these kids in achieving their dreams.
As this will take them away from fog to azure
sky, the poet here wants to say that in this way
the kids can be taken away from the darkness of
their present to a bright future.

12. He wants these kids to experience the
sands and the beauty of nature as this will
led to a desire of gaining knowledge.
They will then go through the white and
green leaves. Here white leaves depict
books and green leaves depict nature.
This will then result in their progress and
they will be able to paint a bright future for
themselves.

13. 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.

14. Literary devices
Metaphor: books and nature are expressed in form
of white and green leaves (the white green leaves
open)
Simile: their lives like catacombs
Anaphora: Use of repeated words in two
consecutive lines (Run azure and Run naked)
Symbols: green fields, gold sand( colour, happiness,
nature and opportunities).
2. Run azure- experience the rich colour

15. Assignment
1. To whom does the poet in the poem, ‘An Elementary
School Classroom in a Slum’ make an appeal? What is
his appeal?
2. What does the poet wish for the children of the slums?
3. What message does Stephen Spender convey through
the poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a
Slum’?

16. THANK YOU