CBSE (Class-12) FLAMINGO (ENGLISH)
Flamingo (Poem-2)
(Poem-An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum )
About the poet- Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was an English poet and an essayist. He left University College, Oxford without taking a degree and went to Berlin in 1930. Spender took a keen interest in politics and declared himself to be a socialist and pacifist. Books by Spender include Poems of Dedication, The Edge of Being, The Creative Element, The Struggle of the Modern and an autobiography, World Within World. In, An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum, he has concentrated on themes of social injustice and class inequalities.
All poetic device used in this poem.
First Stanza:-
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 live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
PALLOR-Unhealthy, pale appearance
STUNTED-Underdeveloped
HEIR-One who gets the property of a person upon his death
GNARLED-Rough,having a weather-beaten appearance
Second Stanza
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. 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.
TYROLESE VALLEY-A beautiful valley in the Australian mountains
CAPES-Here,loose garments
Third Stanza
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
WICKED-Mischievous Or tricky
SLYLY-Cunning
SLAG-Worthless,useless
MENDED-To make something use able by repairing it
BLOT-A weak point,Blemish
DOOM-A disaster
Forth Stanza
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.
CATACOMBS-An underground place used to bury dead people
AZURE-A bright,blue colour
Poetic device;-
- Far far- The figure of speech is repetition as the word 'FAR' has been repeated.
- Gusty waves- The figure of speech is personification as the waves have been given the human quality of being gusty.
- Like rootless weeds- The figure of speech is simile as the children are directly compared to rootless weeds.
- The paper seeming boy- The figure of speech is Metaphor as the thin boy is directly compared to paper.
- With rat's eye- The figure of speech is metaphor as the boy's eye is indirectly compared to rat's eye.
- Cloudless at dawn- The figure o speech is antithesis as cloudless and dawn are two opposing ideas.
- A narrow street- The figure of speech is metaphor,indirect comparison of narrow street to a narrow world.Metaphor,words (education) has been indirectly compared to stars. Education is beyond the reach (stars) of the slum children.
- Like bottle of bits of stone- The figure of speech is simile.The children are compared directly to bottle bits of stone.
- As big as doom- The figure of speech is simile. The children's world in the slum are directly compared to the world of doom.
- Surely Shakespeare- The figure of speech is alliteration. It is the repetition of the sound's'
- Their lives like catacombs- Simile.Their world id directly compared to catacombs.
- Break, o break- The figure of speech is repetition. The words 'break' have been repeated to emphasize a statement.
- Their tongues ran naked- The figure of speech is personification. given human quality opportunity.
- So single-minded- The figure of speech is alliteration.it is repetition of the sound 's'.
- Perhaps the earth can teach us- The figure of speech is personification. The earth has been given the human quality of teaching.
