An Elemantary School classroom in a slum
- STEPHEN SPENDER
Presentation Done By:
Reshma Tejeswani. Patarapalli
Under the guidelines of our :
Ravi raju ( sir )
English, PGT, JNV VZM
Let us go through this questions before going into the lesson
1. What kind of children are found in the slum?
2. Who was sitting at back of the dim class?
3. What was he dreaming about?
4. Who is the “unlucky heir” and what will he inherit?
5. What do these classrooms walls have?
6. What sort of life do such children lead?
7. Why does the poet invoke governor, inspector, visitor?
What functions are expected to perform by them?
8. What other freedom should they enjoy?
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Stephen Spender:
(1909-1995)
He was an english poet and essayist who took keen interest in politics declaring himself a socialist & pacifist.
BOOKS, POEMS of dedication:
i, The creative element world within world. ii, Social injustice.
iv, Class inequalities. v, Empathy for the downtrodden are the major themes of his writings.
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Slum area
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An Elemantary School classroom in a slum
Far far from gusty
waves these childrens faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor.
The tall girl with her weighed-down head.
At back of the dim class One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream.
Of squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this.
On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare’s head,
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map.
Awarding the world its world. And yet, for these children, these windows, not this map, their world.
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky,
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, and the map a bad example.
With ships and sun love tempting them to steal---
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.
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes.
From fog to endless night ?
Unless, governer, teacher, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows.
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Let us revise
Can you identify a clear rhyme scheme ?
If not what is this kind of verse called???
This poem is in free verse.
Child Labours in a Fire Cracker factory
Stephen Spender
February 28,1909 – July 16, 1995
Stephen Spender ( 1909 – 1995 ):
~ English poet, essayist and writer.
~ Briefly taught in a school Devon.
~ Professor at university College, London.
~ Professor Eneritus.
~ Focus on social injustice and class struggle in work.
~ Tension between poetic lyricism, romantic idealism and a strong political consciousness.
Background of the poem :
▪︎ Published in 1964 outstanding example of political voice.
▪︎ Expresses his ideology on government, economics and education.
▪︎ Written during the Civil Rights Movement in the US commentary on racist issues.
▪︎ Socialist Proclamation against Capitalism and Social Injustice.
▪︎ Hence, the poem has a universal significance.
Poetic Technique :-
☆ Homeric beginning – lofty nature.
☆ Natural descriptions – the waves in the picture are fascinating but also reminiscent of the stirrings of Nationalism.
☆ Anitheticl imagery – contrast between the condition of children and the subjects of their learning.
☆ Metaphoric merger of the children with the environment in which they live.
☆ Implied questions :
● Is Shakespeare wicked as well as liberating?
● Are the maps a temptation or hope for a future?
☆ Escapism – a sudden desire in the last stanza that these children will be magically released from bandage into freedom.
Poetic Technique cont’d :
☆ Focuses on the rigid class distinctions in civil society.
☆ Shows the impact of capitalistic domination.
☆ Hence, their classroom is portrayed metamorphically
“ A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky”
☆ Shows the failure of education to improve the lives of the children.
☆ Highlights the pathos in the poem.
☆ Ends on a note of prophetic hope.
A brief summary explanation………
Let’s go through this once ;
Central theme :
In this poem , Stephen Spender deals with the theme of social injustice. He presents the theme by talking of two different and incompatible worlds. The world of the rich and the civilized has nothing to do with the world of narrow lanes and cramped holes. The gap between these two worlds highlights social disparities and class inequalities.
Brief summary of the poem :
Stephen Spender has presented a true picture of the life of school children living in the slum of Tyrolese valley of Austrian Alpine Province. The children are in a very miserable condition due to their poverty and illiteracy. They are depressed. Their pale faces Express sadness. They look lean, skinny and bony. They are like rootless weeds which cannot resist anything for their existence. They are physically very weak and under nourished. Spender voices his concern for these children who live all their life in slums and have no opportunity to enjoy the real blessings of life. He makes a frantic appeal to the educated and effluent sections of the society to better the lot of the slum children through education. It will remove social injustice and class inequality.
Thank you