“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Introduction

• Read the full text of “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Summary

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Themes

• 

  The Inescapable Trap of Poverty

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-16
  • Lines 19-24
• 

  Class Injustice, Apathy, and Hypocrisy

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 9-20
  • Lines 25-32
• 

  Nature vs. the Urban Environment

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Line 1
  • Lines 7-8
  • Line 10
  • Lines 11-16
  • Line 23
  • Lines 28-32

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”

• Lines 1-4

  Far far from ...
  ... with rat's eyes.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-8

  The stunted, unlucky ...
  ... other than this.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  On sour cream ...
  ... world its world.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-16

  And yet, for ...
  ... stars of words.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Surely, Shakespeare is ...
  ... to endless night?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 20-24

  On their slag ...
  ... big as doom.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  Unless, governor, inspector, ...
  ... break the town

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  And show the ...
  ... is the sun.

  

  

  

  

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“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Symbols

• 

  The Windows

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 12-16: “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.”
  • Lines 25-32: “Unless, governor, inspector, visitor, / This map becomes their window and these windows / That shut upon their lives like catacombs, / Break O break open till they break the town / And show the children to green fields, and make their world / Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues / Run naked into books the white and green leaves open / History theirs whose language is the sun.”
• 

  Fog and Darkness

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 14-15: “Where all their future's painted with a fog, / A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky”
  • Lines 19-20: “For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes / From fog to endless night?”
  • Lines 23-24: “All of their time and space are foggy slum. / So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.”
• 

  The Donations

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 9-12: “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.”

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 10: “dawn,” “dome”
  • Line 14: “future's,” “ fog”
  • Line 15: “street sealed,” “sky”
  • Line 17: “Surely, Shakespeare”
  • Line 18: “ships,” “sun,” “steal”
  • Line 19: “slyly”
  • Line 20: “From fog,” “slag”
  • Line 21: “skins,” “by bones,” “spectacles,” “steel”
  • Line 22: “bottle bits,” “stones”
  • Line 23: “space,” “slum”
  • Line 24: “So,” “blot,” “slums,” “big”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-8
  • Lines 9-12
  • Lines 14-16
  • Lines 19-22
  • Lines 28-31

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 4: “rat's eyes”
  • Lines 4-6: “The stunted, unlucky heir / Of twisted bones, reciting a father's gnarled disease, / His lesson, from his desk.”
  • Lines 7-8: “His eyes live in a dream / Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.”
  • Line 9: “sour cream walls”
  • Lines 11-12: “Open-handed map / Awarding the world its world.”
  • Lines 12-15: “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”
  • Line 16: “stars of words”
  • Lines 19-20: “lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes / From fog to endless night”
  • Lines 20-21: “On their slag heap, these children / Wear skins peeped through by bones”
  • Lines 23-24: “All of their time and space are foggy slum. / So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.”
  • Lines 29-32: “make their world / Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues / Run naked into books the white and green leaves open / History theirs whose language is the sun.”

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “Far far”
  • Line 3: “The tall girl”
  • Lines 3-4: “The paper- / seeming boy”
  • Line 4: “The stunted, unlucky heir”
  • Line 12: “world,” “world”
  • Line 16: “Far far”
  • Line 18: “ships and sun and love”
  • Line 28: “Break,” “break”
  • Lines 28-28: “ O / open till they break”
  • Line 30: “Run azure on gold sands”
  • Line 31: “Run naked into books”

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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  Where simile appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:”
  • Lines 21-22: “spectacles of steel / With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.”
  • Lines 26-27: “these windows / That shut upon their lives like catacombs,”

• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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  Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

  • Lines 4-5: “The stunted, unlucky heir / Of twisted bones,”
  • Lines 7-8: “His eyes live in a dream / Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.”
  • Lines 9-12: “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.”
  • Lines 14-15: “Where all their future's painted with a fog, / A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky”
  • Line 17: “Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example.”
  • Line 25: “governor, inspector, visitor,”

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Gusty
• Pallor
• Heir
• Gnarled
• One unnoted
• Belled
• Tyrolese valley
• Lead sky
• Slag heap
• Blot
• Governor
• Inspector
• Catacombs
• Azure

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “Far far from gusty waves these children's faces.”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Speaker

“An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”

More “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” Resources

• External Resources

  • Stephen Spender's Biography — Learn more about Spender in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.

  • Spender and the "Auden Group" — Learn more about the group of poets with whom Spender was closely associated. 

  • Slums and Urban Poverty — Check out a UN blog post about modern slums and the need for meaingful policy action.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Stephen Spender

  • My Parents