CLASS : XII

SUBJECT: ENGLISH CORE

POEM: AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM
IN A SLUM
MODULE : 1
TEACHER : NISHA NAIR
 AN ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL CLASSROOM
IN A SLUM
STEPHEN SPENDER
             STEPHEN SPENDER
PATHETIC LIFE IN SLUM……..
 ABOUT THE POET:

• Was an English poet and essayist.

• Had keen interest in politics.
• Considered himself as a socialist and pacifist.
• Stephen Spender was appointed the seventeenth Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry to the US Library of Congress in 1965.
 ABOUT THE POEM :

• Was published in the year 1964.

• Written in Free Verse, no rhyme scheme.

• This poem was written at the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the US. It’s
the best example of Spender’s political voice emphasized.
 THEME OF THE POEM :

• SOCIAL INJUSTICE AND CLASS INEQUALITIES PREVAILING IN THE SOCIETY.

• In this poem, Spender describes the condition of the students of an elementary
school, which is situated in a slum area. He expresses the widespread neglect of
children of all nationalities, races and ethnicities. He wants to draw attention of
everyone towards these kids so that their lives can be improved and they become
good citizens rather than criminals.
FIRST STANZA OF THE POEM :

Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.

Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor;
The tall girl with her weighed- down head. The paper-
seeming boy, with rat’s eyes. The stunted, unlucky heir
of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
his lesson from his desk. At the back of the dim class
one unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
of squirrel’s game, in a tree room, other than this.
 KEY WORDS/ PHRASES AND MEANING :

• PALLOR – pale or dull face

• STUNTED – not properly grown due to malnutrition
• GNARLED – rough and incurable
• PAPER SEEMING BOY – very thin, weak boy as thin as a sheet of paper
• TREE ROOM – here, a cavity / hole on the trunk of the tree
 LITERARY DEVICES USED IN THE STANZA :

• SIMILE : children’s faces compared to rootless weeds.

• METAPHOR : weak boy compared with paper, eyes compared to that of a
• rat.
• REPETITION : the word far is repeated.
WILL CONTINUE…..

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