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Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Summary and Questions
ABOUT THE POET
Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and political discriminations, especially the class struggle in his work. His poems were often inspired by social protest.
SUMMARY
The poem describes an elementary school in a slum. The children studying look pathetic. The children studying in the class are far away from the world which is filled with happiness, has bounties of nature and is filled with brighter aspects of life. The bodies of these children are withered and worn out like uprooted weeds. Their hair is unkempt and their faces are pale which clearly indicate their deprived and under-nourished condition. These children are stressed by the burden of their circumstances. They are exhausted both physically as well as emotionally. There is a tall girl in the class with her head weighed down. There is a skinny boy. His rat-like eyes give a frightening look. The only inheritance they have from their parents is disease and bad luck. One of them cannot even get up from his desk and recite a lesson. However, there is one little boy, sitting at the back of the class, who is younger than others. His eyes are filled with hope and a wish to play in the open. Apparently, gloom has still not enveloped him.
The off white and foul smelling walls of the classroom depict the donations given to the school. Besides, there are pictures of Shakespeare, of a cloudless daybreak of civilised cities having buildings with domes, of Tyrolese valley 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 windows 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 poet calls Shakespeare wicked. This is because he misleads the children.
The works of Shakespeare talks about beautiful world of ships, love and sun but all this is unreal for these children. He feels that it has a corrupting influence on these children and instigate them to steal and evade from their cramped hole. Their existence is indeed, very sad. These emaciated children are so thin that it gives an appearance of wearing skin. They have broken and mended glass in their spectacles. Their complete personality depicts deprivation. The poet shows his anger by saying that the map must have picture of huge slums rather than a world with scenic beauty something the slum children cannot relate with. He makes an appeal to the governor, inspector and visitor. He says that unless the world map becomes a window for these children 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 appeals to help these children breakfree from their world which is confined in the slums. He wants that children should see the green fields and to give them freedom to make their own world with proper education and guidance. He believes when sun and hope is the language then only history is created. Similarly, to make their own bright future children need proper education and freedom from their own boundaries.
CBSE Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Important Questions and Answers
Question 1. To whom does the poet in the poem, “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” make an appeal ? What is his appeal?
Answer
The poet, in the poem “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”, makes an appeal to the governor, inspector and visitors. The appeal that he is making is for them to come to the rescue of the slum children from the world of misery and hopelessness shown in the outside world.
Question 2. Which words/phrases in the poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ show that the slum children are suffering from acute malnutrition?
Answer
In the poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’, there are several words/ phrases, such as “the paper-seeming boy with rats eyes”, “Skins peeped through by bones”, etc., which show that the slum children are suffering from acute malnutrition.
Question 3. What message does Stephen Spender convey through the poem : ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’?
Answer
In ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’, Stephen Spender has concentrated on the themes of social injustice and class inequalities. He wants all the barriers that keep true education away from these unfortunate children to be pulled down, so that they can also find their place in the sun.
Question 4. In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. How far do you agree?
Answer
In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. The little boy at the back of the classroom in “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” seems to be full of hope in the future. Despite leading a miserable life, he finds pleasure in a squirrel’s game, in the tree room, etc. Similarly, we come across two slum children in Anees Jung’s “Lost Spring”, Mukesh and Saheb. While the former aspires to become a motor mechanic, the latter wants education.
Question 5. The poet says, ‘And yet, for these children, these windows, not this map, their world.’ Which world do these children belong to ? Which world is inaccessible to them ?
Answer
The stinking, dingy slums is the world that belongs to these poverty stricken, miserable, underfed children. The narrow lanes and dark, cramped holes, which provide nothing except hopelessness are also a part of their world. To the slum children, the world of the rich is inaccessible. Such a world is full of luxury, comfort and joy, which is beyond their reach.
Question 6. How does the poet describe the classroom walls?
Answer
The sour cream walls of the classroom are decorated with the donated pictures of Shakespeare, buildings with domes, world maps and beautiful Tyrolese valley.
Question 7. The poet says, “and yet for these children, these windows, not this map, their world”. Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?
Answer
Unfortunately, the children of the slum belong to a gloomy world where the dense black fog darkens everything, even their future. The narrow, dirty lanes are a symbol of their poor and miserable life. The world, which belongs to the sophisticated, where everything is sunny and beautiful, the world with clean rivers, mountains, valleys are easily visible, is the world inaccessible to the slum children.
Question 8. “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom”, says Stephen Spender. What does the poet want to convey?
Answer
“So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.” What Stephen Spender wants to convey here is that the world of the slum children is foggy, bleak and gloomy. They do not know anything beyond this world, the slag heap in it, the “narrow street sealed with a lead sky”; it’s a world, which is far from rivers, capes and Tyrolese valley. An actual map of the world, promising great adventures and a cheerful life, is of no use to them. The slum children should be able to relate with the maps taught to them.
Question 9. Why does Stephen Spender say that the pictures and maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless?
Answer
“So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.” What Stephen Spender wants to convey here is that the world of the slum children is foggy, bleak and gloomy. They do not know anything beyond this world, the slag heap in it, the “narrow street sealed with a lead sky”; it’s a world, which is far from rivers, capes and Tyrolese valley. An actual map of the world, promising great adventures and a cheerful life, is of no use to them. The slum children should be able to relate with the maps taught to them.
Question 10. How does the world depicted on the classroom walls different from the world of the slum children?
Answer
“So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.” What Stephen Spender wants to convey here is that the world of the slum children is foggy, bleak and gloomy. They do not know anything beyond this world, the slag heap in it, the “narrow street sealed with a lead sky”; it’s a world, which is far from rivers, capes and Tyrolese valley. An actual map of the world, promising great adventures and a cheerful life, is of no use to them. The slum children should be able to relate with the maps taught to them.
Question 11. What does the poet wish for the children of the slums?
Answer
For the children of the slum, the poet wishes good education in order to widen their horizon. He wants to take the children closer to nature and liberate them from their miserable condition.
Question 12. What does Stephen Spender want to be done for the children of the school in a slum?
Answer
Stephen Spender wants the slum children to get education related to their life. He wants nature to be used as a teacher and that the rich and powerful people get involved in solving the problems of the slum children.
Question 13. How is ‘Shakespeare wicked and the map a bad example’ for the children of the school in a slum?
Answer
Here, in this line, the poet means to say that just as Shakespeare and his work are of no use to the children in slum school, maps too do not depict the world the slum children can relate to i.e., “narrow streets …. far far from rivers, capes…”. Both Shakespeare and maps represent a beautiful world and high values, which the slum children have never experienced, which could tempt them to steal.
Question 14. Stephen Spender in his poem, ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ paints a dismal picture of poverty. Comment.
Answer
Stephen Spender indeed paints a dismal picture of poverty in his poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’. He describes the children in the slum school as pale and lacking energy. They are malnourished and heir to gnarled diseases. Stephen Spender likens them to the unwanted weeds. The classroom too is dingy, with yellowing walls depicting images, which are of no significance to these children because they cannot relate to the fascinating sights. However, they can relate to their grim surroundings, cramped living, slag heap and a future that is foggy.
Question 15. How does the map on the wall tempt the slum children ?
Answer
The map shows beautiful rivers, mountains and Tyrolese valley. The world depicted in the maps is unknown and unrelatable to the slum children. They live in cramped places. The sky above their head is darkened and foggy due to the factory smoke. They are surrounded by slag heap. The maps just tempt them without giving them an opportunity to live in the real world.
Question 16. 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.
(a) Who are these children?
(b) Which figure of speech has been used in the first two lines?
(c) Why is the tall girl’s head weighed down ?
(d) What does the word, ‘pallor’ mean ?
Answer
(a) They are slum children studying in an elementary school classroom in the slum.
(b) (i) Repetition – Far far
(ii) Metaphor – Gusty waves
(iii) Simile – Like rootless weeds
(c) The tall girl’s head is weighed down perhaps by the burden of her everyday worries and anxieties. Depression, due to extreme poverty and physical and mental exhaustion, may also be the reason of her head being bowed down.
(d) The word ‘pallor’ means pale colouring of the face, especially because of illness.
Question 17. 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.
(a) Who are these children?
(b) What does the poet mean by ‘gusty waves’?
(c) What has possibly weighed-down the tall girl’s head?
(d) Identify the figure of speech used in these lines.
Answer
(a) The children referred to in the poem are slum children who attend an elementary school in that slum.
(b) By ‘gusty waves’ the poet means all that the slum children have been deprived of, such as better living conditions, happiness, progress, etc.
(c) The tall girl’s head is possibly weighed-down because of the troubles and tribulations of living in abject poverty and thinking of a future within the hopeless confines of a slum.
(d) (i) Simile – “Like rootless weeds”
(ii) Repetition – “far, far”
(iii) Metaphor – “gusty waves”
(iv) Alliteration – “far, far from”
Question 18. On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
(a) Who are these children?
(b) What is their slag heap?
(c) Why are their bones peeping through their skins?
(d) What does ‘with mended glass’ mean?
Answer
(a) These children are the poor and impoverished children of the slum.
(b) Their slag heap is the slum in which they are living.
(c) Their bones are seeping through their skins because the slum children are malnourished and physically weak.
(d) ‘With mended glass’ means the slum children are too poor to afford spectacles. They use steel frames, lenses of which are broken.
Question 19. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
(a) Why is the class dim?
(b) Why is the child called ‘sweet and young’?
(c) What does the child want to enjoy?
(d) What is the significance of the phrase, ‘other than this’?
Answer
(a) The class is dim because it is poorly lit and the walls have yellowed. It is a slum school, which reflects the deprivation of the surroundings and also the bleak grey world of poverty
(b) The child is called sweet and young because unaffected by the surroundings, he looks happy and innocent.
(c) The child wants to enjoy the freedom of the squirrel, enjoy dreaming of a better world outside the dimly lit classroom.
(d) ‘Other than this’ signifies that the child does not want to remain in the class and wants to escape.
Question 20. 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.
(a) Who is the unlucky heir?
(b) What will he inherit?
(c) Who is sitting at the back of the dim class?
Answer
(a) The ‘unlucky heir’ is the boy with twisted bones and stunted growth.
(b) The boy will inherit the gnarled disease and twisted bones from his father.
(c) An unnoted, sweet and young boy is sitting at the back of the dim class.
Question 21. 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.
(a) Name the poem.
(b) What are the donations on the wall?
(c) What does the map award the world?
(d) Why does the poet mention ‘Tyrolese Valley’?
Answer
(a) The name of the poem is ‘An Elementary Schools Classroom in a slum’.
(b) The donations on the wall included portrait of Shakespeare, a flowery Tyrolese valley, etc.
(c) The map awards the world, its world.
(d) The poet mentions Tyrolese Valley because it is beautiful picture of Tyrot an Autrian Alpine province.
Question 22. With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal…
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?
(a) Who are ‘them’ referred to in the first line?
(b) What tempts them?
(c) What does the poet say about ‘their’ lives?
Answer
(a) The word ‘them’ refers to the poor and deprived children studying in the slum school.
(b) The children of the slum school are easily tempted by the ships, sun and love, in other words, the beautiful world outside the slum.
(c) According to the poet, the children live in miserable conditions. They live in cramped holes in desolation. Their existence is foggy and there is no hope for their future.
Question 23. 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.
(a) Who are the ‘children’ referred to here?
(b) Which is their world?
(c) How is their life different from that of other children?
Answer
(a) The children referred to here are those who study in an elementary school in a slum.
(b) Their world is the slum they live in. It is far-far away from rivers, capes and stars. Theirs is a world of poverty and deprivation with narrow streets scaled in with a lead sky.
(c) Unlike other children, children in the slums spend their whole life confined in ‘their cramped holes’ like rodents. They lack the basic necessities of life like proper food, clothing, shelter and health benefits. Their future is bleak without any hope or progress.
Question 24. And, yet for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
(a) Which map is the poet talking about in the above lines?
(b) To what do the words, “these windows, their world”, refer?
(c) What sort of future do the slum children have?
Answer
(a) In the above lines, the poet is talking about the map of the world displayed on the classroom wall.
(b) “These windows, their world” refers to the world of slum, the pathetic living condition of the slum children visible from the windows of their classroom.
(c) The future that the slum children have is dark, bleak, hopeless and uncertain.
Question 25. The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
(a) Who is the ‘unlucky heir’ and what has he inherited?
(b) What is the stunted boy reciting?
(c) Who is sitting at the back of the dim class?
Answer
(a) The class is dim because it is poorly lit and the walls have yellowed. It is a slum school, which reflects the deprivation of the surroundings and also the bleak grey world of poverty
(b) The child is called sweet and young because unaffected by the surroundings, he looks happy and innocent.
(c) The child wants to enjoy the freedom of the squirrel, enjoy dreaming of a better world outside the dimly lit classroom.
(d) ‘Other than this’ signifies that the child does not want to remain in the class and wants to escape.
Question 26. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal—
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night? On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
(a) Why is Shakespeare described as wicked?
(b) Explain: ‘from fog to endless night’.
(c) What does the reference to ‘slag heap’ mean?
Answer
(a) The poet describes Shakespeare as wicked because not only classic literature of Shakespeare is beyond the understanding of slum children, they also cannot relate their life of hardships with the beautiful world depicted in his works; such a world is denied to the slum children.
(b) By ‘from fog to endless night’, the poet draws some light upon the miserable, bleak, cheerless and hopeless life of the slum children and their gloomy future.
(c) ‘Slag heap’ refers to the miserable and unhygienic living conditions of the slum children due to their extreme poverty.
Question 27. 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.
(a) To whom does ‘they’ refer?
(b) What would they break?
(c) What other freedom should they enjoy?
Answer
(a) The word ‘they’ refers to inspectors, visitors and governor.
(b) They would break the mental and physical barriers, break the boundaries of discrimination which would enable the slum children to acquire proper education.
(c) The children should enjoy free and happy life away from slum. They deserve the freedom to explore the world of which a clear blue sky, golden sand, green fields, etc. are a part.
Question 28. ….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 times and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.
(a) Which two images are used to describe these slums?
(b) What sort of life do these children lead?
(c) Which figure of speech is used in the last line?
Answer
(a) The two images used to describe these slums are :
(i) Slag heap
(ii) slums as big as doom
(b) In the dirty and unhygienic surroundings of the slum, children lead a pathetic and miserable life full of wants, poverty, hopelessness and uncertainty.
(c) The poet has used simile in the last line.
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