Summary of An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum - Stephen Spender

AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM

                                                                                    – Stephen Spender

In this poem, the poet showcases the plight of the children studying in a slum school and the necessity to bring about a change in their lives.
The poem begins with a dreary sketch of the children sitting in the class. There is a tall girl sitting in the class whose head is bent down due to illness and exhaustion. The poet observes a skinny boy, thin like paper, whose eyes seem scared and hungry like that of a rat’s. Another boy with deformed body appears to have inherited his disease from his father is sitting at his desk. On the last bench, a sweet-looking yet unnoticeable boy is seated. He watches a squirrel playing in its tree house and, therefore, appears disinterested in the class.
The second stanza describes the classroom. The off-white and foul smelling walls of the class indicate the donations given to the school. Besides, there are pictures of Shakespeare, of a cloudless daybreak, of civilised cities having buildings with domes, of valleys and of a big world map on the wall. However, none of these are of any help to these children living in slums. Their world comprises of only what they are able to see from the window of their classroom. The view is full of despair where their future seems blurred. They are confined to the narrow streets of the slum that is far away from the open sky and rivers.
The third stanza talks of the impact of the pictures on the children. According to the poem, Shakespeare and the world map present a ‘bad example’ to these children. The beauty, vastness, and radiance of such things will only tempt them. Having no means to attain these, they will, gradually, be led to the world of crime. They spend their whole life confined in ‘their cramped holes’ like rodents. The undernourished bodies of these children look like skeletons, comprising of only bones. Their steel-framed spectacles with repaired glasses make them appear like the broken pieces of a bottle scattered on stones. Since their whole life revolves around slums, the map to future also seems blotted.
In the last stanza, the poet makes an appeal to the ‘governor, inspector and visitor’. He says that unless the world map becomes a window, for these kids, to explore the outside world and the windows that shut them up from the rest of the world are broken, their future will remain the same as their present. The poet pleads to help these children break free from their world, confined in the slums. He asks to show the children the ‘green fields’ and to give them freedom to make their own world with proper education and guidance. He believes that history is created where ‘sun’ or hope is the language. Similarly, these children need proper education and freedom from their present boundaries to create their own bright future.