British poet Stephen Spender's "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" illustrates the devasting effects of urban poverty. The speaker presents the classroom of the poem's title as an oppressive, dreary place in an oppressive dreary world. The donations that line the dingy classroom walls—images of Shakespeare and beautiful valleys—offer cruel, false promises to students, who have little, if any, hope of ever escaping their circumstances. The slum defines their entire existence, the speaker argues, and it will define their futures unless meaningful, systemic change takes place. The poem was published in Spender's 1939 collection The Still Centre and likely based on the poet's visit to a school in East London.

• 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

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