An Elementary School Classroom in a slum - Flamingo - Poetry -
Class XII - NCERT/CBSE - Comprehension - Questions with answers
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Q. : Read the Stanzas given below carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Stanza 1 for comprehension
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. The paper
seeming boy, with rat's eyes. 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 in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper
seeming boy, with rat's eyes. 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 in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.
Answer the following Questions:
1. Name the poem and the poet.
2. Who are being described in these lines?
3. Where are the children sitting?
4. Explain 'weighed-down head'.
Answers
1. The name of the poem is 'An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum.' The name of the poet is 'Stephen Spender.'
Or
The name of the poem is "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" and the Poet is "Stephen Spender".
Or
The name of the poem is "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" and the Poet is "Stephen Spender".
2. The poor slum children are being described in these lines.
3. They are sitting in an elementary school classroom.
4. 'Weighed-down head' means a head that has been bent down due to weakness and illness.
Stanza 2 for comprehension
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.
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.
Questions :
1. Why do you think the class was dim?
2. Who was sitting at the back of the class?
3. What was the little one dreaming of?
4. Explain the words : 'other than this.'
Answers
1. The lack of electricity or proper ventilation had made the class dim.
2. A little sweet boy was sitting at the back of the class.
3. He was dreaming of the squirrel and it's game that it could be playing in its tree room.
4. The squirrel's tree room where it plays all day is very different from this dirty classroom. While the tree room is a beautiful and airy space, the classroom is dim and suffocating.
Stanza 3 for compression :
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.
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world.
Q.1: What walls have been referred to in these lines ?
Q. 2 : What do the walls refer to in these lines?
Q. 3: What is meant by sour cream walls?
Q. 4 : What donations are there on the walls ?
Answers:
1.The name of the poem is An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum. The name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
2 They are the walls of a classroom in an elementary school in a slum.
3 The walls are damp and give the smell of sour cream.
4 : Walls are decorated with pictures donated by different people - a picture of Shakespeare's bust, another of a cloudless dawn, another of a cathedral dome and still another of a flowery valley.
Stanza 4 for comprehension
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.
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.
Questions
Q. 1. Who are these children'? What do 'these windows' refer to ?
Q. 2 What has been said to be the world these children ?
Q.3. What has been said about their future ?
Q.4 What do you think is meant by 'stars of words'?
Answers
1. They are the poor children living in a slum. These windows refer to the windows of the classroom.
2 The narrow street under the dull sky has been said to be their world.
3. Their future is painted with fog. It means that the poor children have no certainty about their future.
4. Here the poet is referring to the tall promises made by politicians to the poor slum-dwellers.
Stanza 5 for compression
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.
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal -
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night.
Q.1. Name the poet and the poem from which the above lines have been taken.
Q.2. Why is Shakespeare 'wicked and the map 'a bad example'?
Q.3. What type of life do these children lead ?
Q.4. What tempts these children and why?
Q.5. "Tempting them to steal.' Who does 'them' here refer to ?
Answers:
1. The name of the poem is An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum. The name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
2. Poet means to say that Shakespeare's bust seems out of place in this Classroom. Children has no use of showing Shakespeare's head here. Map shows the world which far different from the world of poor slum children. That is why Shakespeare has been said to be 'bad example.'
3. They lead a very poor and miserable life.
4. The love of comfortable and luxurious life tempts them to steal. They have no means to reach that type of world.
5 . 'Them' here refers to the slum children. Ma as a bad example to these children. They can take to stealing tempted by this world.
Stanza 6 for comprehension
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.
Questions:
Q.1. What has been referred to as slag heap?
Q. 2. What peeps through their skins ? What does this show?
Q.3. How do their spectacles look?
Q.4. What does the poet want to blot and why?
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.
Questions:
Q.1. What has been referred to as slag heap?
Q. 2. What peeps through their skins ? What does this show?
Q.3. How do their spectacles look?
Q.4. What does the poet want to blot and why?
Answers:
1. The bloodless bodies of the poor children have been referred to as slag heap.
2. Their bones peep through their skins. It shows that the poor children don't get nutrition and have no flesh on their body.
3. They look like bottle bits on stone.
4 : The poet want to blot he maps of the world because the only world these children know is their slum. They are unaware of any other world.
Stanza 7 for comprehension
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.
Questions :
Q. 1. Name the poem and the poet.
Q. 2. What does the poet say in the beginning of the stanza?
Q. 3 What has their present world been compared to?
Q.4 What is meant by 'this map'?
Q. 5 . What are 'there windows' which the poet talks of?
Q. 6 .What has been referred to as 'catacombs?'
Q. 7 . What does the poet want the governor, the inspector and the visitor to do?
Q.8 What becomes their window
Answers
1. The name of the poem 'An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum' and the name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
2. He says that maps of the world have no meaning for these poor children until they are taken out of their slum.
3. Their present world has been compared to catacombs.
4. It is a map of the world that has been hung on a wall in the classroom.
5. They are the classroom windows from where the children can see only a narrow street and dull sky.
6. The little narrow homes of the slum-dwellers have been referred to as catacombs.
7. He wants these people to take steps by which the poor children can be taken out of the slum where they live.
8. The map of the world hung on the wall in the classroom becomes their window.
Stanza 8 for Comprehension:
And show the children to green fields, and make their world
Run azure on gold hands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books, the white and green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun
Questions :
Q. 1 : What children is the poet talking of?
Q. 2 : Where does he want them to be taken?
Q.3. What is meant by 'the white and green leaves'?
4 Explain: 'History theirs whose language is the sun'
Q.5 Who writes history, according to the poet?
Q. 6. Name the poem and the poet.
Answers
1. The poet is talking of children who go to an elementary school in a slum.
2. He wants them to be taken to a place where they can play in open fields and on golden sands.
3. The white leaves are the leaves of books and the green leaves are the leaves of trees.
4.The poet means to say that only those nations live in history where children can move as freely on the earth as does the sun in the sky.
5. Those people create history who are free to enjoy anything under the sun.
6. The name of the poem is An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum and the name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
Now answer the questions given below based on textual exercise:
Q. 1: What do you think is the colour of sour cream? why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls ?
Ans. : The colour of 'sour cream' is pale yellow which is a symbol of decay. The walls of the school has not been whitewashed for long. So they smelled like sour cream. This expression has used to show the difference between the world shown in the map and the world in which these children are living. They are far away even basic needs of life . They are confined to these decaying walls which is peeped through a window. They live in this miserable condition from day in to day out.
Q.2 : What does the poet want the governor, the inspector and the visitor to do?
Or
What does the poet want for the children of the slums ? How can their lives be made to change?
Ans. : The Poet want these People to take these children out of the slum where they can live in green surrounding . And where they can read the history of the great people who has achieved something . They should be taken to the open fields and let them run barefooted on golden sand. They should be provided all the basic needs so that they can also make progress in life.
Q.3 : Why has the map been said to be a bad example?
Ans.: These slum dwellers have scarcity of basic things such as food , clothing and shelter. They are ill fed , weak and born deformed. They can only see narrow streets and dull sky the window of the classroom. The map which shows rivers , capes , seas with huge ships, green and beautiful landscapes is too far from their reach. That is why poem says this map as a bad example to these children. They can take to stealing tempted by this world.
Q. 1: What do you think is the colour of sour cream? why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls ?
Ans. : The colour of 'sour cream' is pale yellow which is a symbol of decay. The walls of the school has not been whitewashed for long. So they smelled like sour cream. This expression has used to show the difference between the world shown in the map and the world in which these children are living. They are far away even basic needs of life . They are confined to these decaying walls which is peeped through a window. They live in this miserable condition from day in to day out.
Q.2 : What does the poet want the governor, the inspector and the visitor to do?
Or
What does the poet want for the children of the slums ? How can their lives be made to change?
Ans. : The Poet want these People to take these children out of the slum where they can live in green surrounding . And where they can read the history of the great people who has achieved something . They should be taken to the open fields and let them run barefooted on golden sand. They should be provided all the basic needs so that they can also make progress in life.
Q.3 : Why has the map been said to be a bad example?
Ans.: These slum dwellers have scarcity of basic things such as food , clothing and shelter. They are ill fed , weak and born deformed. They can only see narrow streets and dull sky the window of the classroom. The map which shows rivers , capes , seas with huge ships, green and beautiful landscapes is too far from their reach. That is why poem says this map as a bad example to these children. They can take to stealing tempted by this world.
Q. 4: What does the poet want the governor, the inspector and the visitor to do?
Or
What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made to change?
Ans. : The poet wants these people to take steps by which the poor children can be taken out of the slum. They should be given the opportunity to live in open and green world where they can wander or run freely as the sun roams in the sky. They should be provided books so they can earn knowledge by reading white leaves of these books.
Q.5 : What does the poet say about the open-handed map'?
And. The map hung on the wall has been called 'open-handed' because it shows the open lands, seas, and all beautiful places of the world. This map is stark contrast to the children's world. Their world is limited only to narrow streets and dull sky of the slum. They are not aware of the world shown in the map. Their day starts in the dusty slum and ends in foggy night. In this way, they can be channelised in right direction and brought to main stream.
Q.6 : The walls of the classroom are
decorated with the pictures of
'Shakespeare' 'buildings with domes', 'world maps' and beautiful valleys.
How do these contrast with the world of these children?
decorated with the pictures of
'Shakespeare' 'buildings with domes', 'world maps' and beautiful valleys.
How do these contrast with the world of these children?
Ans. : The pictures that decorate the
walls hold a stark contrast with the
world of these underfed, poverty
stricken, slum children living in
cramped dark holes. Obstacles
hamper their physical and mental
growth. The pictures on the wall
suggest beauty, well-being, progress
and prosperity-a world of sunshine
and warmth of love. But the world of the slum children is ugly and lack prosperity
walls hold a stark contrast with the
world of these underfed, poverty
stricken, slum children living in
cramped dark holes. Obstacles
hamper their physical and mental
growth. The pictures on the wall
suggest beauty, well-being, progress
and prosperity-a world of sunshine
and warmth of love. But the world of the slum children is ugly and lack prosperity
Q.7 What is the theme of the poem
"An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum? How has it been presented?
"An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum? How has it been presented?
Ans: In this poem Stephen Spender
deals with the theme of social
injustice and class inequalities. 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.
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