An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
By: Stephen Spender
Class 12 Flamingo Book
Poetry Chapter – 2
Stanza 1 Explanation
Far far from gusty waves these children's face.
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 live in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in tree room, other than this.
Hindi Explanation: इस पंक्ति में कवी बताते हे की इन बच्चों का स्कूल बहुत गंदे क्षेत्र में है और इस कारन ये बच्चे सवच्छ वातावरण से वंचित है। कवी सलम स्कूल के बच्चों की तुलना जंगल के उजड़े हुए पौधों से करते है जिसे देख-भल करने वाला कोई नहीं होता है। इस पंक्ति में कवी कुछ बच्चों के बारें में भी बताता है, ये कंघी नहीं करते है इस कारन इनका बाल उलझा- उलझा है, क्लास में एक लम्बी लड़की बहुत चिंतित सर झुकाये बैठी है, एक बहुत पतला लड़का है जिसके आँखों में भूख झलक रही है, एक जन्म से विकलांग लड़का भी है जो अपने डेस्क में बैठकर अपना पाठ याद कर रहा है, क्लासरूम में पीछे भाग में थोड़ा अँधेरा हे जहाँ पर एक प्यारा- सा बच्चा बैठ कर गिलहरी का स्वप्न देख रहा है, लेकिन इस बच्चे को कोई भी ध्यान नहीं दे रहा है।
Stanza 2 Explanation
On Sour cream wall, donations. Shakespeare's head,
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cites.
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.
Hindi Explanation: इस पंक्ति में कवी क्लासरूम का चित्रण करते है। वह बताते है की क्लासरूम में चंदे में मिले शेक्सपियर का चित्र, खुले आसमान के निचे एक सुन्दर सा शहर तथा टेरोलिज घाटी जो की सुन्दर फूलों से भरा है उसका चित्र तथा एक विश्व मानचित्र टंगा हुआ है। इस मानचित्र में पूरी दुनियाँ को दिखाया गया हे लेकिन इन का भविष्य इसमें कहीं भी नहीं दिख रहा। कवी कहते की इन बच्चों की दुनियाँ प्राकृतिक के सुन्दर स्थानों से बहुत दूर एक सकरे स्ट्रीट में सिमट के रह गयी है।
Stanza 3 Explanation
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.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.
Hindi Explanation: कवी इस पंक्ति में बताते है की बच्चो के लिए शेक्सपियर एक दुष्ट व्यक्ति होगा और वह मानचित्र बच्चों के लिए एक बुरा उदहारण होगा क्योकि शेक्सपियर अपने रचना में सुन्दर- सुन्दर दृश्यों के बारे में वर्णन करते है जो इसी मानचित्र वाली दुनियाँ में है जो बच्चों के मन में लालच उत्पन्न करती है। जिंदगी ने इन बच्चों का पूरा जीवन एक के ऐसे गड्ढे में धकेल दिया है जा कभी न ख़तम होने वाली अंधकार है। कवी बतातें हे की क्लासरूम में सभी बच्चे कुपोषण का शिकार है, जिस कारन ये बच्चें इतने पतले की इनके स्थियों को साफ गिना जा सकता है। कुछ बच्चों के दृष्टि दोस भी, इस कारन वे चश्मे पहने हे, लेकिन चस्मा भी पूरी तरह से टूटी हुयी है। इनका पूरा समय इसी सलम स्थल में गुजरती है। कवी कहते की मानचित्र में इस सलम स्थल को उतना बड़ा दिखाना चाहिए जितना बड़ा नर्क है।
Stanza 4 Explanation
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
Hindi Explanation: इस पंक्ति में कवी कहते है की जब- तक गवर्नर, इंस्पेक्टर और विज़िटर इनके लिए कुछ नहीं करेंगे तब तक ये बच्चें सिर्फ मानचित्र में ही दुनियाँ देख पाएंगे। कवी को ऐसा लगता है की इनकी दुनियाँ एक कैटाकॉम्ब (भूमिगत एक छोटा – सा स्थल) में बंद है। फिर कवी कहते है की गवर्नर, इंस्पेक्टर और विजिटर्स को तब तक यिन बच्चों के उज्वल भविष्य के लिए तब तक कोसिस करनी चाहिए जब तक ये बच्चें सलम स्थल से निकल कर एक स्वच्छ स्थान पे न आ जाये। इन बच्चों भी प्राकृतिक की सुन्दर दृश्यों को दिखाया जाये और फिर इन्हें पढ़ने को कहाँ जाये। फिर अंत में कवी कहतें की इतिहास उन्हें ही याँद रखती जिसने खुद का बलिदान दिया हो दूसरों के जीवन सवारने के लिए।
Important Question Answer of An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
Ques: What do the children in the slum classroom look like? or, How do the faces children of the slum school look like?
Ans: The children in the slum classroom are malnourished. They are very thin and weak like sick children. They are unhealthy. They have many diseases due to malnutrition. They do not comb their heir. They look like rootless weeds. But some of them are young and sweet.
Ques: Which world is of the children in a slum school and which world is not their world?
Ans: The children in the slum school live in a polluted world. Their all-time and space are in the heap of garbage. They have deprived of basic needs and all happiness. The beautiful nature, happiness, bright future are not in their world.
Ques: What does the poet want for the children of the slum? How can their lives be made to change?
Ans: The poet wants these children to be removed from the slum area. These children should be given a pollution-free environment, healthy and prosperous surrounding. He requests the government and visitors to help them because they have power and if they try, they provide a better life and bright future to these children.
Ques: What are the things on the wall of the classroom?
Ans: Some rich visitors have donated many things like a painting of beautiful nature and cities, a world map and a picture of Shakespeare’s head. All these things are hung on the shabby wall of the classroom but these things are meaningless for the children.
Read the following stanza and answer the questions:
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.
Ques: Name the poem and the poet.
Ans: Poem- An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum.
Poet- Stephen Spender.
Ques: Why is the boy called “unlucky heir”?
Ans: The boy is called an “unlucky heir” because he is handicapped since birth and this he received from this father.
Ques: How is the boy described here? What has he inherited?
Ans: The boy is described as an unlucky heir because he is an undeveloped child and has twisted bones. He has inherited gnarled disease.
Ques: What dream does the “unnoted, sweet and young boy” have in his eyes?
Ans: The sweet and young boy dreaming quarrel’s game sitting at the backbench of the deem class.
....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, caps, and stars of words.
Ques: Name the poem and the poet.
Ans: Poem- An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum.
Poet- Stephen Spender.
Ques: Which world is of the children in a slum school and which is not their world?
Ans: They lived in slum streets. Their world is full of poverty, hunger, a polluted environment and a foggy sky. The world of prosperity, civilized city, beautiful nature and clean environment are not in their world.
Ques: What is the future of these children?
Ans: The future of these children is in darkness so their future is uncertain and not decided.
Ques: What do they crave for a narrow street or rivers and capes?
Ans: They crave rivers and capes. They want openness to live in a beautiful world.
Download previous year Question: Click Here
Thank you very much for visiting our website to read An Elementary School Classroom. Our aim in creating this website is to promote free education. It is not possible to do this noble work alone, so we need help from those who want to support us in this purpose. You can follow our various pages to support us, whose links are given below: