An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
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Stanza 1
The opening stanza of "An Elementary School
Classroom in a Slum" provides a clear, dreary depiction of the students in
the classroom. The first child is a "tall girl with [a] weighed-down
head." This girl is physically and emotionally exhausted, as if all life
has been dredged from her body and sapped from her mind. Her classmates are in
no better condition. "The paper- / seeming boy, with rat's eyes" is
paper-thin and weak. His eyes are defensive and scared, like a scavenger, a
rat. His prospect for survival, let alone success, is bleak. Another student,
"the stunted, unlucky heir / Of twisted bones," is the victim of a
genetic disorder. Spender writes that the boy has inherited his "father's
gnarled disease"; he has been left disfigured, trapped in a physically
challenged body.
Spender then describes the boy "at back of the
dim class," stating, "His eyes live in a dream." This last
student represents both a glimmer of wary hope and a shiver of mental damnation.
It is unclear whether he is dreaming of a life he may achieve or has lost his
mind to the "squirrel's game." This vague distinction between these
two conflicting interpretations exposes all the students' futures: there is
little or no expectation that they will succeed, and the best they can hope for
is to keep their sanity and not fall victim to a faux reality. Beneath it all,
the boy's dreaming eyes may harbor an honest desire for true success. This last
boy, "unnoted, sweet and young," may understand his position in
society and see the sadness of his fellow students. With this understanding, he
may represent hope for social change, instead of merely being an individual who
has lost his mind.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza, Spender describes the classroom
and its contents. The classroom is full of "donations." The children
are from the lowest class; they are the children of proletarians. The classroom
is constructed through donations of others' capital. All that the students
possess comes from their oppressors, the bourgeoisie. The upper class, which
holds these children in their place, also offers them their only tools to
escape. The maps, books, and "Shakespeare's head" that give the
students hope of something outside their dreary existences are gifts from the
very hands that clamp them down in their economic and social position.
Spender writes,
. . . 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.
The "donations" may give a glimpse of some
world to the students, but not of their world. The students do not perceive
their world as like the one depicted in the classroom's "donations."
It is not the "belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley" but instead a foggy,
"narrow street sealed in with a lead sky." Their future is bleak,
unknown, and dreary. The children in "An Elementary School Classroom in a
Slum" are trapped by their social and economic status as children of
proletarians.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza, Spender responds cynically to the
reality of the students' futures. He calls Shakespeare "wicked" and
the map a "bad example." He writes that the stories from the books of
"ships and sun and love" are "tempting them [the students] to
steal." The world presented by the bourgeoisie to the students in "An
Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" is intended to lure them and drag
them into a life of crime. Spender's cynicism is a commentary on the upper
class and their circumventing tactics in the effort to hold a firm grip on
lower-class citizens. By exposing the students to the beauties of the world,
the bourgeoisie appear to be assisting the proletarians' children, instilling
in them hope for something better. However, Spender sees the bourgeoisie's
"donations" as something far more evil. His cynical view of the
"donations" is that they were given not to infuse the students with
hope but rather to force them to commit crime and thus be branded as thieves.
As such, the bourgeoisie are readily empowered to oppress the lower class for
no other reason than to protect their own families, assets, and futures from
the lawbreaking hands of the proletariat.
Although Spender voices cynicism, he does not lose
sight of the true victims of the injustice of the class struggle: the children.
In this stanza, he continues to describe the children "on their slag
heap." He returns to their thin, malnourished bodies, stating that they
"wear skins peeped through by bones." They also wear "spectacles
of steel / With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones." Spender is
making a resounding humanist statement about the treatment of children in this
poem. It appears that he is more sickened by humanity's disregard for the
children than by the social and economic framework that has doomed these
children to the slums.
Stanza 4
In the final stanza, Spender comes full circle. He
replaces cynicism with hope, a plea for a new manifesto for the children. He is
petitioning "governor, inspector, visitor" to transform the sour
temptation of the bourgeoisie's donations into a reality. He begs for a change
that will "break O break open" the "windows / That shut upon
their lives like catacombs" and free the children from the constraints of
their position in society. Spender asks that the children be shown — directly,
not through "donations" — "green fields" and "gold
sands."
Spender further hopes that the children will be able
to "let their tongues / Run naked into books the white and green leaves
open." The "white and green leaves" could be seen to represent
money, bourgeoisie donations that supply the books the children use. However,
with this statement, Spender is asking for a pragmatic alteration in the
practical application of "donations." Given the current bourgeoisie
scheme to oppress the proletariat through donations, the students either are
locked in their social position or are led into a world of crime through
temptation. Spender is claiming that if students are truly allowed free
exploration — naked tongues running freely through donated books — then their
education and their "language" will become the "sun"
burning away the "fog" that has sealed their fates and doomed them to
"An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum."
MOSCHUS
MOSCHIFERUS
In
modern times man abuses the power of music. The power of music in fact
strengthens life in man, but today the power of music represents the
degeneration of man. A.D. Hope deplores the abuse of music for killing animals.
The poet says ironically that he dedicates “Moschus Moschiferus’ to St Cecelia
who is a patron saint of music.
Moschus Moschiferus is the Latin term
given to musk deer. It is known as Kastura or Kabarga in the East. These deer were
once found in great numbers in the thick forests of the mountainous regions of
Assam and Tibet. Once such deer were
hunted in large numbers for their musk and consequently they dwindled in their
number to such an alarming extent that they are facing extinction. In this poem
the poet tries to make the reader away of the vulnerability of such a creature
against man’s greed and invokes the blessings of St Cecelia to save them.
The I stanza describes the natural
habitat and beauty of the musk deer. The kastura deer are described as dainty
creatures, symbolic of beauty. But this beauty doesn’t seem to appeal to man
because he is blinded with materialism. These deer are one of the oldest
species (archaic) found in the ‘thickets of rhododendron and birch’ of Himalayas.
Earlier the hunters used to drive the deer in herds towards the net spread by
them and trap them in large numbers. Then they would slaughter them. The
speaker seems worried as these Kastura deer are endangered. Being small in
number the deer are killed by the hunters in a novel manner- more exquisite and
refined.
In the II and III stanzas the poet
describes the methods employed by the hunters to kill the Kastura deer. The
hunter set out into the forest in groups of two or three, each carrying a bow and
one a slender flute. They go deeper and deeper into the jungle where the place
is calm and they hardly find any trace of mankind. The archers climb the trees
and wait for the prey as if they were invisible. The piper (flutist) squats
against the roots of the tree. The
archers scan the glade in the forest and the piper begins to play the music.
The stanzas IV and V highlight the melancholic
nature of music played by the archers.
In the stillness of the wood, the poet feels the forest is listening to
the delicate and shrill music played by the piper. The music can evoke ecstasy and intense feelings. The note can make the listening hearts gay,
pensive and contemplative. The range of
music is like drops of pure, bright drops of rain pattering sound. Rain metaphorically signifies life and hope,
but here it ironically signifies death.
The piper’s music moves in wounding fashion without a pause. The quality of the music is excellent without
any break. The whole atmosphere appears
to be in the trance of noon. As the
afternoon grows tense the deer comes out of its hiding place that is the
juniper’s darker shade. The deer comes
out with bright eyes, quivering muzzle and pricked ear (i.e. the music has had
a hypnotic effect on the deer). The
overjoyed and fearless musk deer fall into the metaphoric net of the hunters (music).
In the VI stanza the poet describes
the way the deer were enticed and killed.
It looks like music casts a magic spell on the deer. Hunters use the power of music to ensnare the
deer as the hunters draw bow string to hit the deer with the poisoned shafts,
the leaves overhead stir.
The VII stanza talks about how the
deer shudders, struggles, leaps and falls to death. The music rises to a ‘delicious peak’ while
the deer fall dead.
In the VIII stanza the hunters climb
down when it’s dusk and count the number of musk deer killed. They cut the glands that hold the musk and
leave the carcasses thousands of them to rot away.
The IX stanza further talks about how
thousands of deer are killed every year.
Economic terms like ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ are linked to justify their
killing of the innocent animals. The
demand for the rich scent is increasing and therefore the source of the scent
must be slaughtered which would paradoxically result in the extinction of the
animal.
In the final stanza we see that the
poet is choked with the emotion of grief because of the destruction of nature
and creative art (music). All those who
praised the power of music hardly knew about the abuse of music. The poet still dedicates this song to St
Cecelia.
The Ship That Found Herself
PARTS OF A SHIP
•
Capstan: a
drum shaped machine used for winding
i.e. a ship’s anchor cable
•
Deck: the
platform extending from one side of a ship to the other(forming the floor)
•
Beam: the
greatest width of a ship
•
Bow :the
front of a ship
•
Stern : the
back part of a ship
•
Port :the
left side of a ship
•
Starboard :The
right side a ship
•
Rivet :heavy pin
•
Garboard
strake: the
lowest plate in the bottom of the ship
•
Thrust block: is a specialized form of
thrust bearing used
in ships, to take the push of the screw
•
Stringers : long iron girders, that
run lengthways from stern to bow. They keep the iron frames in place, and also
help to hold the ends of the deck-beams, which go from side to side of the
ship.
•
web-frames
:the frames of a ship are the vertical side-members to which the shell-plating
is fixed.
•
centrifugal
bilge-pump a pump, usually situated in the engine-room and
driven directly by the main engine, used for pumping out the lowermost
compartments (the bilges) in the ship.
sea valve also called a 'sea
cock'. It communicates with the sea, to admit or discharge water.
ABOUT
THE SHIP
•
Name: Dimbula
(named by owner's daughter, Miss Frazier)
•
Type: cargo-steamer
of twenty-five hundred tons
•
Owner: well
known Scotch firm
•
Compared with:
Lucania
•
First journey:
Liverpool to New York
•
Why one of her
kind: It
was the very best of her kind, the outcome of forty years of experiments and
improvements in framework and machinery; It was two hundred and forty feet long
and thirty-two feet wide, with arrangements that enabled her to carry cattle on
her main and sheep on her upper deck if she wanted to; but her great glory was
the amount of cargo that she could store away in her holds.
•
Why every
piece had a separate voice?
•
The Dimbula was very strongly
built, and every piece of her had a letter or a number, or both, to describe
it; and every piece had been hammered, or forged, or rolled, or punched by man,
and had lived in the roar and rattle of the shipyard for months. Therefore, every
piece had its own separate voice, in exact proportion to the amount of trouble
spent upon it.
SUMMARY
•
In this story Kipling tells us about a
brand new ship Dimbula, on her first journey, that has not yet "found
herself." To "find herself" means the various parts of the
ship must learn what their individual role is within the structure of the ship.
They must learn to work together. “Every part of her has to be livened up and
made to work with its neighbour -sweetening her ” They can learn to work
together only if they are able to sail through the rough weather and
successfully face the turbulent water and strong wind(gale).
•
Kipling personifies the ship as well as
the different parts of a ship by giving each part of the ship a voice ,
personality and thought. As soon as the ship enters the open water, she
begins to talk. If one tries to listen to the side of the cabin, one can
hear hundreds of little voices in every direction, thrilling and buzzing, and
whispering and popping, and gurgling and sobbing and squeaking exactly like a
telephone in a thunder-storm.
•
When the ship had cleared the Irish
coast, the various parts of the ship start talking and try to establish
their supremacy over the other. To begin with capstan and the engine start
arguing about being ducked. Capstan asked the engine not to move very fast and
the wave laughed at it . Likewise the deck beams tell the capstan to remain
still otherwise it would strain them. The stringers(stringers always consider
themselves most important, because they are so long) warn the deck beams.
The rivets too join the chorus.
•
Then suddenly the ship started
rising and that lifted the big throbbing screw nearly to the surface,
so the cylinders admonished the screw for flying off the
handle. Thrust-block, whose business it is to take the push of the screw,
demanded justice and the bearings too joined the chorus. The high-pressure
cylinder joins the conversation claiming that it was the noblest outcome
of human ingenuity. Meanwhile the piston is choked, for half the steam
behind it was mixed with dirty water and it shouted for help.
•
The anchor windlass, the garboard
strake, the rivets, and the other parts attempt to understand the new sensation
of being out of the shipyard and out at sea.
As the various parts express their fear that they are inadequate to the task
(individually), the steam comes on the scene with the comprehensive
understanding of what is happening. The steam has been through this process
many times before (as a drop of steam, as a raindrop, as an ocean wave). He is
the wise, experienced advisor who teaches, coaches, and guides the ship parts
through their maiden voyage. The cylinder is furious at the bad weather, the steam
tries to reassure everyone that everything will be fine by morning.
•
The web-frames complained that they
are being treated frivolously. The strake shouted that "The sea
pushes me up in a way I should never have expected,", "and the cargo
pushes me down, and, between the two, I don't know what I'm supposed to
do." The steam advised it to hold on. The web frame claimed that it is the
sole strength of this vessel.
•
The sea-valve proudly proclaims that it
is a Prince-Hyde Valve, with best Para rubber facings. A big centrifugal
bilge-pump declares it is alone capable of clearing all water that enters the
ship.
•
Suddenly there was a dead westerly gale,
blown from under a ragged opening of green sky, narrowed on all sides by fat,
grey clouds. Then the foremast announces that there is an organised conspiracy
against the ship, the whole sea is concerned in it - and so is the wind. The
capstan too reiterates the same. As the ship faces the turbulent water, all the parts of the ship that were
arguing started to work together to save
the ship from drowning.
Thus when the ship completes her first
journey successfully then all the parts of the ship are now tuned to the
different weather conditions and have learned to work together. As the
ship arrives in New York harbor, the ship is one, no longer just a collection
of parts (individuals). The ship enters port confident and satisfied, all the
individual voices are silent and the ship now speaks with one voice-which is the soul of the ship.