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An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
'An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum' by Stephen Spender is a poem about the condition of elementary schools situated in slums.
60 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 1964
3 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Spender
282 books75 followersSir Stephen Harold Spender (1909–1995), English poet, translator, literary critic and editor, was born in London and educated at the University of Oxford, where he first became associated with such other outspoken British literary figures as W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C. Day Lewis and Louis MacNeice. His book The Thirties and After (1979) recalls these figures and others prominent in the arts and politics and his Journals 1939–1983, published in 1986 and edited by John Goldsmith, are a detailed account of his times and contemporaries.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
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May 21, 2022
The poet is not commenting directly on any particular nation in his poem; as an alternative, he exposes the prevalent disregard of children of all nationalities, races, and ethnicities. The poet deals with the idea of social unfairness, disparity and injustice and presents two extensively contrasted worlds - the world of the rich capitalist class and that of the disadvantaged.
He appeals to bridge the gap and bring parity by breaking the barriers and feels the need of '(posing children to the beauty of nature and real education as opposed to their unsightly surroundings and restricted mental development. This would bring a new warmth, self-assurance, incentive and power in the underprivileged and they will be able to create their history anew.
The opening stanza depicts the depressing and impoverished states of children in a school classroom situated in a slum area. The speaker is probably an onlooker who watches these children.
This classroom is dissimilar from a regular classroom because the children sitting in there are not blissful, bright-faced or passionate children. They are far away from windswept waves and are sitting in their dreary classroom. The poet compares their faces to 'rootless weeds' implying that they are disheveled, withered and worn out just like the wild growth and plants. Their hair is ruffed and spread around their pale, unwholesome faces.
The first child is a tall girl who is both physically and emotionally exhausted up to a repressive life. Another child is paper-thin or awfully weak with eyes like that of a scavenger rat --- defensive and terrified. Then there is the thin, puny student suffering from a genetic disorder. He has regrettably inherited his father's disease of twisted bones.
He is repeating his lesson in a mellow and weak voice, from his desk and his physically challenged body seems to be replicating his own father's disease and pain. This could also have a symbolic meaning. (Just as paralysis is hereditary, class distinctions and mental menaces are also a legacy of social and economic conditions.)
The last description is that of a boy who is unnoticed, sweet and young. He dreams of a place outside the dim and oppressive classroom ('other than this") He represents a spark of hope. He dreams of being a squirrel and playing in the hollow of a tree. The fact that he wants to play in the hollow of a tree is an ironical reflection of the misery of his current life.
However, he carries within him the possibilities of change are dreams of the freedom that he might achieve one day. He is consequently a symbol of hope for social change and liberation.
In the second stanza, the poet begins by talking about the 'donations' that are hung on the 'sour cream walls'. The classroom is ill maintained. The colour of the walls is a depressing off white 'Sour' is a negative work. This reflects not only the utter state of neglect that the classroom has fallen into but also the unhappiness, decay, bitterness and dullness in the life of the children. They belong to the neglected working class --- the class of proletarians as opposed to the bourgeoisie.
The classroom has been built up through donations given by capitalists. The upper class holds these children in socially and economically frustrating circumstances and at the same time shows them as in scenic glimpse of another beautiful world that exists outside their world of slums.
This outside world is in total contrast to their jaded world. This other world constitutes Shakespeare's head --- a cultural emblem, symbolizing the incredible world of literature and civilization which is not available to these children. Cloudless skies represent a world of opulence, which is contrasted to the melancholic atmosphere of these children. Large grand buildings are suggestive of civilization and progress. The picture of the Tyrolese valley is redolent of beauty and peace. Openhanded world maps are drawn out compliant with the whims and fancy of the capitalist and the powerful.
The world made by God with all its bounty is not for the slum children. All the items put up on the dirty walls of the classroom comes as a gift from the capitalists or the bourgeoisie. However, for the students of the slum school this fantastic world portrayed in the maps is a dubious, invented and unfamiliar world.
They do not recognize it as their own.
They have a limited and contracted view of the world through the windows in their classroom. The world and the future that they see are painted with fog, which symbolizes something hazy.
In other words, their future is bleak and obscure. In place of beautiful open spaces and valleys shown to them in the poster pictures in their classroom, 'narrow' streets that are closed in by a lead / dull sky restrict them in reality. Their world is very different from the rivers, peninsulas and the magical beauty of words reflected in the outside world.
The cultured and refined exposure and education given to these children by the capitalists, in the form of' donations' does not help them elevate themselves from their present existence. The future is bleak and obscure. On the contrary, the stark contrast between the two worlds probably intimidates the children's future.
In the third stanza, the poet poses a cynical question…….. Isn’t the study of Shakespeare 'wicked' and aren't maps of foreign lands a bad example' for these slum children?
Can Shakespeare ever be of any interest to them?
Can maps of foreign lands ever accommodate these unfortunate children?
The answer is 'No.
Their reality is that of a tedious and dismal life not this scintillating world. They are only familiar with filth and dirt. They are in fact doomed for furtively withdrawn into' cramped holes' i.e. into limited, restrictive lives. Their life moves from dullness and ignorance (symbolized by 'fog') to suffering and death (symbolized by 'endless night '). Their life is a struggle for sustenance.
Spender's cynicism springs from his belief that the upper class stylishly uses diplomacy to keep a firm hold on lower class citizens. They give donations to show that they are helping the children in the slums.
However, their donations do not help to advance the children's education at all. By exposing the students to a magnificent world the bourgeoisie seem to be helping the proletarians' children and instill in them the desire to hope for something better. Spender sees their "donations" as evil.
The study of Shakespeare is wicked because although it liberates the children from dull lives it also destroys their own world. The maps of foreign lands are a 'bad example' because they give children ideas of:
*Breaking away from their world in 'ships'.
*Stealing away from 'lead' skies to 'sun' filled worlds
*Escaping towards a 'love' for life, rather than dread or disillusionment
All beautiful things tempt children and build illusionary dreams in their minds-dreams of liberation from their dull lives whereas in reality these dreams are unattainable. They only lure students 'to steal' and be dragged into a life of crime.
Spender continues to describe the plight of these children. They are doomed to wander on the heaps of slag* dragging bodies that are so weak and emaciated that their bones peep out of their skins. They also wear steel spectacles whose glasses have been mended so often that they look like pieces of broken bottles on stones.
Their time and space is spent within this dirty and foggy slum. Since future does not hold any promise for them, Spender feels that they should not be entangled in false hopes. In the last line spender is very cynical about the social and economic framework that has smudged the future of the children by filling it with nothing but pathetic slums. Their future is foggy or uncertain and is eventually going to end in disaster.
There is an urgent need to blot out these slums (where life is worse than death) by giving their inhabitants resources and opportunities to lead dignified lives. The last line could also be indicative of the way in which he wants the exploited class to rebel against social injustice and inequality.
He in his agony suggests that the map of the capitalists should also be marked with slums that should spell doom for them
In the final stanza, Spender replaces cynicism with optimism and makes an appeal for a new policy for the benefit of the children. He appeals to the people in position-like the "governor, inspector, and visitor" and asks for a more realistic approach to the way donations are given and used.
In this new approach money should empower the deprived and exploited children and rescue them from the oppression of class discrimination. He wishes such as transformation to come about that can make the map of Stanza 3 to actually become their window to the world.
It should expose to the children, a completely new world of enlightenment. The poet wants them to get rid of this unsuitable atmosphere of the slums The other windows that hinder all progress by shutting upon the lives of these children like ‘catacombs’ must "break O break open".
They should thus get freedom from the constraints of their death-like existence. Spender asks that the children be shown the green fields or open vast areas in reality and allowed to breathe freely in the beauty of these open "green fields" (as opposed to narrow lanes).
Their world should extend to the vast blue sky (as opposed to the lead sky) that is spread over "gold sands giving them limitless opportunities to grow and develop.
The green fields here represent liberation and gold sands symbolize affluence. He further hopes that the students are truly allowed real education in the form of free exploration- 'naked tongues' running freely through or delving deep into donated books without suffering fear, malnutrition, exhaustion or disease.
The image of 'naked tongue' is very stark, conveying the almost real chance to pursue education with which the children must read. He wants them to truly explore books, maps, the world, and themselves. In other works, they should be given a feverish hunger for knowledge and growth and not just tempted with unreachable aspirations. If this happens, then their "language" will gain the power and warmth of the "sun'' They will acquire freedom of expression.
Then they will have the ability to burn away and clear the" fog", that has sealed their fates and doomed them to "An elementary school classroom in a slum".
These children empowered by an all-embracing, candid education can achieve a mental ability that will free them from future "painted with a fog" with knowledge, the children can change the future.
They can raise their educated arms in revolt and overturn the oppression that tries to keep them in place. They will empower to create their history for themselves.
A striking feature of this poem is the poet’s use of metaphors. The metaphors the poet uses while describing the children are "tall girl with weighted down head". This girl is physically and emotionally exhausted. "The paper-seeming boy, with rat's eyes "is paper-thin an weak. "the stunted unlucky heir of twisted bones."
Is he a victim of genetic disorder? 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 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"
Another noteworthy feature of the poem is its antithetical (opposing) imagery, a contrast between the 'rootless', 'stunted', 'twisted', 'gnarled', 'dim' and 'diseased' lives of the slum children, and the subjects of their learning. The poet sees the life of slum children as too removed from that represented in school books, maps, photographs of alpine valley, or a bust of Shakespeare.
The poem carries a widespread appeal and it makes a definite shift from glumness and cynicism in the first tree stanzas to hopefulness in the final stanza.
He appeals to bridge the gap and bring parity by breaking the barriers and feels the need of '(posing children to the beauty of nature and real education as opposed to their unsightly surroundings and restricted mental development. This would bring a new warmth, self-assurance, incentive and power in the underprivileged and they will be able to create their history anew.
The opening stanza depicts the depressing and impoverished states of children in a school classroom situated in a slum area. The speaker is probably an onlooker who watches these children.
This classroom is dissimilar from a regular classroom because the children sitting in there are not blissful, bright-faced or passionate children. They are far away from windswept waves and are sitting in their dreary classroom. The poet compares their faces to 'rootless weeds' implying that they are disheveled, withered and worn out just like the wild growth and plants. Their hair is ruffed and spread around their pale, unwholesome faces.
The first child is a tall girl who is both physically and emotionally exhausted up to a repressive life. Another child is paper-thin or awfully weak with eyes like that of a scavenger rat --- defensive and terrified. Then there is the thin, puny student suffering from a genetic disorder. He has regrettably inherited his father's disease of twisted bones.
He is repeating his lesson in a mellow and weak voice, from his desk and his physically challenged body seems to be replicating his own father's disease and pain. This could also have a symbolic meaning. (Just as paralysis is hereditary, class distinctions and mental menaces are also a legacy of social and economic conditions.)
The last description is that of a boy who is unnoticed, sweet and young. He dreams of a place outside the dim and oppressive classroom ('other than this") He represents a spark of hope. He dreams of being a squirrel and playing in the hollow of a tree. The fact that he wants to play in the hollow of a tree is an ironical reflection of the misery of his current life.
However, he carries within him the possibilities of change are dreams of the freedom that he might achieve one day. He is consequently a symbol of hope for social change and liberation.
In the second stanza, the poet begins by talking about the 'donations' that are hung on the 'sour cream walls'. The classroom is ill maintained. The colour of the walls is a depressing off white 'Sour' is a negative work. This reflects not only the utter state of neglect that the classroom has fallen into but also the unhappiness, decay, bitterness and dullness in the life of the children. They belong to the neglected working class --- the class of proletarians as opposed to the bourgeoisie.
The classroom has been built up through donations given by capitalists. The upper class holds these children in socially and economically frustrating circumstances and at the same time shows them as in scenic glimpse of another beautiful world that exists outside their world of slums.
This outside world is in total contrast to their jaded world. This other world constitutes Shakespeare's head --- a cultural emblem, symbolizing the incredible world of literature and civilization which is not available to these children. Cloudless skies represent a world of opulence, which is contrasted to the melancholic atmosphere of these children. Large grand buildings are suggestive of civilization and progress. The picture of the Tyrolese valley is redolent of beauty and peace. Openhanded world maps are drawn out compliant with the whims and fancy of the capitalist and the powerful.
The world made by God with all its bounty is not for the slum children. All the items put up on the dirty walls of the classroom comes as a gift from the capitalists or the bourgeoisie. However, for the students of the slum school this fantastic world portrayed in the maps is a dubious, invented and unfamiliar world.
They do not recognize it as their own.
They have a limited and contracted view of the world through the windows in their classroom. The world and the future that they see are painted with fog, which symbolizes something hazy.
In other words, their future is bleak and obscure. In place of beautiful open spaces and valleys shown to them in the poster pictures in their classroom, 'narrow' streets that are closed in by a lead / dull sky restrict them in reality. Their world is very different from the rivers, peninsulas and the magical beauty of words reflected in the outside world.
The cultured and refined exposure and education given to these children by the capitalists, in the form of' donations' does not help them elevate themselves from their present existence. The future is bleak and obscure. On the contrary, the stark contrast between the two worlds probably intimidates the children's future.
In the third stanza, the poet poses a cynical question…….. Isn’t the study of Shakespeare 'wicked' and aren't maps of foreign lands a bad example' for these slum children?
Can Shakespeare ever be of any interest to them?
Can maps of foreign lands ever accommodate these unfortunate children?
The answer is 'No.
Their reality is that of a tedious and dismal life not this scintillating world. They are only familiar with filth and dirt. They are in fact doomed for furtively withdrawn into' cramped holes' i.e. into limited, restrictive lives. Their life moves from dullness and ignorance (symbolized by 'fog') to suffering and death (symbolized by 'endless night '). Their life is a struggle for sustenance.
Spender's cynicism springs from his belief that the upper class stylishly uses diplomacy to keep a firm hold on lower class citizens. They give donations to show that they are helping the children in the slums.
However, their donations do not help to advance the children's education at all. By exposing the students to a magnificent world the bourgeoisie seem to be helping the proletarians' children and instill in them the desire to hope for something better. Spender sees their "donations" as evil.
The study of Shakespeare is wicked because although it liberates the children from dull lives it also destroys their own world. The maps of foreign lands are a 'bad example' because they give children ideas of:
*Breaking away from their world in 'ships'.
*Stealing away from 'lead' skies to 'sun' filled worlds
*Escaping towards a 'love' for life, rather than dread or disillusionment
All beautiful things tempt children and build illusionary dreams in their minds-dreams of liberation from their dull lives whereas in reality these dreams are unattainable. They only lure students 'to steal' and be dragged into a life of crime.
Spender continues to describe the plight of these children. They are doomed to wander on the heaps of slag* dragging bodies that are so weak and emaciated that their bones peep out of their skins. They also wear steel spectacles whose glasses have been mended so often that they look like pieces of broken bottles on stones.
Their time and space is spent within this dirty and foggy slum. Since future does not hold any promise for them, Spender feels that they should not be entangled in false hopes. In the last line spender is very cynical about the social and economic framework that has smudged the future of the children by filling it with nothing but pathetic slums. Their future is foggy or uncertain and is eventually going to end in disaster.
There is an urgent need to blot out these slums (where life is worse than death) by giving their inhabitants resources and opportunities to lead dignified lives. The last line could also be indicative of the way in which he wants the exploited class to rebel against social injustice and inequality.
He in his agony suggests that the map of the capitalists should also be marked with slums that should spell doom for them
In the final stanza, Spender replaces cynicism with optimism and makes an appeal for a new policy for the benefit of the children. He appeals to the people in position-like the "governor, inspector, and visitor" and asks for a more realistic approach to the way donations are given and used.
In this new approach money should empower the deprived and exploited children and rescue them from the oppression of class discrimination. He wishes such as transformation to come about that can make the map of Stanza 3 to actually become their window to the world.
It should expose to the children, a completely new world of enlightenment. The poet wants them to get rid of this unsuitable atmosphere of the slums The other windows that hinder all progress by shutting upon the lives of these children like ‘catacombs’ must "break O break open".
They should thus get freedom from the constraints of their death-like existence. Spender asks that the children be shown the green fields or open vast areas in reality and allowed to breathe freely in the beauty of these open "green fields" (as opposed to narrow lanes).
Their world should extend to the vast blue sky (as opposed to the lead sky) that is spread over "gold sands giving them limitless opportunities to grow and develop.
The green fields here represent liberation and gold sands symbolize affluence. He further hopes that the students are truly allowed real education in the form of free exploration- 'naked tongues' running freely through or delving deep into donated books without suffering fear, malnutrition, exhaustion or disease.
The image of 'naked tongue' is very stark, conveying the almost real chance to pursue education with which the children must read. He wants them to truly explore books, maps, the world, and themselves. In other works, they should be given a feverish hunger for knowledge and growth and not just tempted with unreachable aspirations. If this happens, then their "language" will gain the power and warmth of the "sun'' They will acquire freedom of expression.
Then they will have the ability to burn away and clear the" fog", that has sealed their fates and doomed them to "An elementary school classroom in a slum".
These children empowered by an all-embracing, candid education can achieve a mental ability that will free them from future "painted with a fog" with knowledge, the children can change the future.
They can raise their educated arms in revolt and overturn the oppression that tries to keep them in place. They will empower to create their history for themselves.
A striking feature of this poem is the poet’s use of metaphors. The metaphors the poet uses while describing the children are "tall girl with weighted down head". This girl is physically and emotionally exhausted. "The paper-seeming boy, with rat's eyes "is paper-thin an weak. "the stunted unlucky heir of twisted bones."
Is he a victim of genetic disorder? 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 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"
Another noteworthy feature of the poem is its antithetical (opposing) imagery, a contrast between the 'rootless', 'stunted', 'twisted', 'gnarled', 'dim' and 'diseased' lives of the slum children, and the subjects of their learning. The poet sees the life of slum children as too removed from that represented in school books, maps, photographs of alpine valley, or a bust of Shakespeare.
The poem carries a widespread appeal and it makes a definite shift from glumness and cynicism in the first tree stanzas to hopefulness in the final stanza.
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