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An Elementary School...

The poem describes a classroom in a slum, with dirty and malnourished children who are far removed from the wealthy world outside. Their lives are confined to the narrow streets and dark slums they live in. While donations like pictures of Shakespeare and maps of the world have been put on the classroom walls, these gifts are useless to the children, as their limited world is only what they can see from their classroom windows. Their future seems foggy, bleak, and dull. The poem calls for breaking open the children's world from the miserable slums, allowing them to wander freely and learn from nature, so that they may one day make their own history.

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Satya Vardhan Singh
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43 views2 pages

An Elementary School...

The poem describes a classroom in a slum, with dirty and malnourished children who are far removed from the wealthy world outside. Their lives are confined to the narrow streets and dark slums they live in. While donations like pictures of Shakespeare and maps of the world have been put on the classroom walls, these gifts are useless to the children, as their limited world is only what they can see from their classroom windows. Their future seems foggy, bleak, and dull. The poem calls for breaking open the children's world from the miserable slums, allowing them to wander freely and learn from nature, so that they may one day make their own history.

Uploaded by

Satya Vardhan Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM

STANZA 1

The slum school children are far away from the fast, bright and hopeful life of the rich world outside.
Their faces are unkempt and dirty. Their hair are scattered untidily around their pale faces. The
children appear like rootless weeds (implying they are unwanted and lack stability). The tall girl who
is sitting there is depressed due to the burden of poverty and keeps her head down. The boy who is
sitting there is very thin and his eyes are bulging out like that of the rat (implying hungry eyes). His
growth is blocked and the body appears under developed. He is an unfortunate heir who has
inherited the disease of twisted bones from his father. Actually, he is not reciting a lesson from his
desk. He is enumerating the disease inherited from his father (the boy only has his crippling disease
to show in the class). A sweet young boy who is unnoticed sits at the back of the dim class. Dreams
seem to be alive in his eyes. He dreams of outdoor games, outside his dull classroom in a dirty slum.
He dreams of squirrel playing games in the hollow of the tree. His dreams are of the places other
than his repulsive classroom (Young boy lost in the world of his dreams. He creates his own fantastic
world where he plays like a squirrel in her tree room. The dull & monotonous environment of the
classroom does not interest him).

STANZA 2

The gifts given as donations and the picture of Shakespeare are hung on the unpleasant creamy
walls (reflecting despondency). But they are useless. Shakespeare and literature are no good to
them. Other pictures hung on the classroom walls are the picture of a clear sky at dawn and a
beautiful Tyrolese valley (indicating beauty and hope with its bells and flowers) along with a dome of
an ancient city building standing for civilization and progress. An open handed map of the world
projects to their grim world, the world given to us with all its bounties. (the rich people pretend to
be generous by donating these things to the children, they feel they have gifted them the beautiful
world through these donations). But for the slum children, their limited world is what they can see
through the windows of the classroom. Their future is foggy, bleak and dull. Their life/world is
confined within the narrow streets of the slum enclosed by the bluish grey sky. Their world is far
from rivers, seas that indicate adventure and beautiful world. They are also far away from stars
which symbolizes wisdom that can empower their future.

STANZA 3

Shakespeare is described as wicked as he holds the key to the charmed world of letters and
unfortunately for these children, there is no way that they can enter that world. The map is a bad
example for them as it does not hold any place for these slum children. They are cruel temptations
for the slum children. These poor innocent children long to have adventure (ships), a better life (sun)
and love, as they are depicted on the classroom walls. These children’s lives are confined to the
narrow holes (dark slums) that they are living in and their lives secretly turn around in their pitiable
state. They only have uncertainty (fog) and hopelessness (endless night) with themselves. The poet
has compared their emaciated wasted bodies to slag (waste) heaped together, their bones peep out
of their flesh (because of malnourishment). These children wear steel spectacles with cracked
glasses looking like repaired pieces of a glass-bottle lying on stones (suggesting immense poverty).
All their time and space is confined to the uncertain world of slums. These slums are living hells and
they are a blot on the progress of the rich and civilized world.

STANZA 4

There is no coordination between the map of the civilized world and the world of the children.
Governors, teachers, inspectors and visitors must bridge this gap. They must peep into the world of
the children living in slums and make their world the world of the children too. The unsuitable
environment of the slums has shut all their gates of progress. Their slums are like the internal dark
part of graves. 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. These obstacles should be broken. Everything that binds them should be
broken and they must be allowed to breathe in the open air. Let them come out of their narrow
lanes and dirty slums of the town. Their world should extend to the sky-blue & waves rising over the
golden sands (indicating the unlimited world). Let the pages of wisdom be open for them. They
should also be provided with the opportunity to learn lessons from nature. The poet’s earnest desire
is that these children should be allowed to read books and get educated. Only those people make or
create history whose language has the warmth and strength of the sun (people whose language has
the touch of humanity, those who have the true knowledge and through this they can break the
chains of prevailing norms, can create history.

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