An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum - Stephen Spender

Values:  

Sensitivity to the underprivileged, equity, equality, awareness, philanthropy, optimism, determination, change etc.

         Written in 1964, the best example of Spender's political voice resonating in a poem.         Expresses his ideological positions on government, economics, and education.         The students in this classroom are underprivileged and malnourished.         The capitalistic government is supposed to supply equal opportunity for education, but

the classroom in the slum offers little hope for change or progress.        A commentary about race issues in American education and a Socialist proclamation

against capitalism and social injustice in general.     Although Spender was British, the poem names no nation or race and was a response to

the global question concerning social injustice which was an essential issue in the American Civil Rights movement of the time.

         The poet’s tone changes from pensive to belligerent and frustrated to an appealStanza 1The poet says that the condition of the children in a slum school is pathetic. Their world is far removed from the open, enthusiastic, healthy environment. They are as unwanted as the rootless weeds. Their hair is unkempt and they have pale faces which clearly indicate their deprived and under-nourished condition. These children, as the tall girl, are stressed by the burden of their circumstances and malnourished. They are exhausted both physically as well as emotionally. The paper-thin boy is too skinny. His eyes have a scared, hungry look. These unfortunate beings have inherited only disease and bad luck from their parents. One of the diseased ones can’t even get up from the desk to recite his lesson. However, there is one child at the back of the class who is younger than the others and often goes unnoticed. His inexperienced eyes are full of hope and he is dreaming about playing games in the open and of a reality different from his life in the slum.

Stanza 2The classroom walls have a faded, negligent appearance as they haven’t been painted for a long time. In other words, these children inhabit a world which is dreary and depressing. On the walls are displayed the donations given by people such as the bust of Shakespeare with the background of a clear sky at the time of sun-rise. The walls also have scenic pictures of Tyrolese Valley with its beautiful flowers presenting a world of heavenly splendour. Apart from all this, the walls also have a map revealing the world. But the world the children view from the classroom’s windows is foggy and harsh. It represents a dark and bleak future with no hope for improvement. Their eyes can only view a narrow road which is enclosed by a dull sky. The poet suggests that these children are trapped in a hopeless situation and their reality is far removed from the literary world which glistens with the beauty of nature such as the rivers, the high land jutting from the sea and is full of glorious words. Stanza 3The pensive poet suddenly turns belligerent (aggressive) and feels that Shakespeare is ‘wicked’. This is because his words mislead the children. He shows them a beautiful world of ships, sun and love which is not only unreal for them but it has a corrupting influence on these children and instigates them to steal to try and escape their cramped holes. On this path, their foggy world would turn into endless night. These emaciated children are

so thin that it appears that they are ‘wearing’ skins. The spectacles they are wearing have glass which has been broken and mended. Their entire appearance reeks of their deprivation. The poet shows his outrage by suggesting that the maps on their walls should show huge slums instead of beautiful scenic graphics. Stanza 4The poet appeals to the governor, inspector and visitor to do something to improve the condition of these children. If there is political will, this map showing the beautiful world outside can become their reality too. The poet hopes the authorities would realize their moral responsibilities and free these children from their grave-like entrapments (catacomb – cave). He wants all the barriers to be pulled down; barriers that keep away true education from them. The children must be given freedom to experience the wholesome bounties of nature-view the green fields and run on ‘gold sand’. The poet begs to let them read books and form their opinions. Let them breathe in fresh air. Let them discover themselves and let them be creative so that their names can also enter the books of history. Let them find their place in the sun.

Stephen Spender highlights the plight of slum children by using vivid images and apt words to picture a classroom in a slum.

Poetic Devices:Like rootless weeds – similePaper-seeming boy – metaphorRat’s eyes – metaphorReciting a father’s gnarled disease – synecdocheA narrow street... stars of words – paradox (two absolutely contrasting images)Like bottle bits... – simileShut upon their lives like catacombs - simileLast four lines – visual imagery

Short answer questions –

1. How do the children of the elementary school classroom in a slum look?2.   What does the poet mean in ‘Shakespeare is wicked and the map is a bad example…’?3. How does the poet draw out metaphorically the present condition of the slum school children indicating bleak and dreary features?4. How does the poet begin the poem with all the despair and end with hope?

BROAD QUESTIONS1. What are the consequences of the distorted form of education given  to the under privileged children?2. The strength of a nation depends on its system of education. Comment3. How can the indifference of those in power be social threat comment with reference to this poem?4. The education in slum schools is a violation of human rights of children. How?5. The children of the slum hope to have a life of mental and physical freedom. Comment

Keeping Quiet - Pablo Neruda

KEEPING QUIET: Values – Introspection, Retrospection, Peace, Sensitivity to the environment, Universal brotherhood, Unity, Empathy, Self-Awareness etc.

Poem by Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda, born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoaltowho always wrote with green ink which according to him, was the colour of hope.Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez once called him the greatest poet of the 20th century of any language

Appeals to readers to take some time out of their busy lives for introspection and retrospection

The aim is to return to our routines with renewed vigour and awareness of ourselves and our actions

THEME: In this deceptively simple poem, the poet has emphasized the need to introspect and bring in the spirit of brotherhood among the people of the world. 

VALUES: Introspection, retrospection, universal brotherhood, sensitivity to the environment, peace, empathy, unity etc.

Neruda begins by asking everyone to count to twelve and keep still. These twelve seconds would help everyone calm themselves and relax and be ready to begin introspection or retrospection.

He wants people to break the barriers of communication and speak no language at all for a few minutes. 

These moments of silence would be unique and enticing because in our mundane life, we are constantly working towards selfish goals and never take the time to reflect.

This sudden silence would give us an opportunity to introspect and unite humanity. We would all perform this activity together. Since we would not speak for a while, barriers between communities would break and a sense of brotherhood would prevail. 

Man would get an opportunity to realize how he is destroying nature and harming himself in the process. The fishermen that harm aquatic life would realize how nature brings them a cold reception. The man who gathers salt from the sea would realize that nature retaliates by turning his hands rough.

In this silence, futile wars against men and nature would be arrested and a new feeling of unity would be experienced. Those who plan and implement bio warfare and nuclear weaponry should, for once, shed their old attire (profession and preoccupations) and put on clean clothes to walk among their fellow men. They must use this time to truly witness what they would destroy with their attempts to achieve a fruitless victory. Such a win leaves no survivors because even if they were physically alive, they would be emotionally dead and eventually, mankind will perish. The war will be a victory of scientific knowledge but there will be no survivors left.

The poet does not want his desire for inactivity to be misunderstood as a state of uselessness or death. He knows and accepts life as it is. He accepts the rush, the noise and even the belligerent attitudes. He says he does not begrudge death or want anything to do with it. He does not want people to be like dead, doing nothing, forever. All he wants is that everyone should take out just a few moments from their busy lives for themselves and for the natural world around them.

He feels that if men were not so determined to keep lives moving all the time, the ensuing silence would interrupt sadness that has become so much a part of us that we do not even notice it. This sadness comes from not knowing oneself and always trying to achieve everything possible at the earliest, out of an illogical fear of impending death.

He wants men to learn a lesson from the Earth. The Earth appears to be inactive yet it is constantly and selflessly productive. The natural world seems omnipresent without being ostentatious and hence, is taken for granted. After the cold inactive unproductive winter, spring arrives with bounty and vivacity. Men too could be productive and progressive without any aggression, selfishness and the urge for destruction. They could care for nature as it cares for them. They could, after eons of selfish actions, bring back a degree of nobility, thoughtful attitudes and universal brotherhood.

Sample Answers: Short Questions -Q.1. What is the sadness referred to in the poem?                                                                             2mAns.1. The sadness Pablo Neruda refers to in his poem, ‘Keeping Quiet’, is that of never being able to understand ourselves through introspection. It also arises out of our mad rush to achieve everything quickly due to our constant fear of the brevity of our lives.

Q.2. What is the significance of ‘twelve’ in the context of this poem?                                             3mAns. 2. Twelve months, twelve zodiac signs, twelve gates of heaven and even the twelve notches on the face of the clock dividing the day into two halves of twelve hours each. Although we do not realize it, the number ‘twelve’ is associated with many things in our life.This poem is a plea for universal brotherhood and peace. At twelve, the hands of the clock, despite their differences, become one. Even the title of the poem, ‘Keeping Quiet,’ has twelve letters. Hence, Neruda appeals to the readers to take these symbolic twelve seconds to begin the journey from strife, barriers and destruction to peace, unity and replenishment.

HOME TASK: RTC QUESTIONS: Notebooks to be taken for final review of T1 on the day of examination(i)       Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.This one time upon the earth,let's not speak any language,let's stop for one second,and not move our arms so much

1. Why does the poet want us to count to twelve?                                               1m2. What does the poet ask us to do?                                                         1m3. What is the significance of ‘twelve’?                                                   2m4. Why does the poet want us not to use our language and our arms?     2m

(ii)       It would be an exotic moment                     without rush, without engines,                     we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

1. Which exotic moment does the poet refer to?                                      1m2. Why does the poet feel that the moment would be exotic?                  1m3. What does the poet want us to do away with?                                     2m4. Justify the statement: We would all be together in a sudden strangeness        2m

(ii)       Fishermen in the cold seawould not harm to the whalesand the man gathering saltwould look at his hurt hands.

1. What would the fisherman not do?                                                    1m2. What would the man gathering salt do?                                             1m3. What transformation will these actions bring?                                   2m4. How does nature respond to man's actions?                                       2m

(iii)      Those who prepare green wars,wars with gas, wars with fire,victories with no survivors,would put on clean clothesand walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

1. What are the different kinds of wars mentioned here?2. What is the poet's advice to the warmongers?3. Justify: 'Victory with no survivors'4. What do the ‘clean clothes’ signify?

 (iv)     What I want shouldn't be confusedwith final inactivity:Life is what it is about,I have no truck with death.

1. What does the poet not want from the listener/reader?                                  1m2. Explain: I have no truck with death                                                                                                                                 2m

(v)  Perhaps the Earth can teach usas when everything seems deadand later proves to be alive.

1. What lesson can we learn from Earth?                                                           2m2. The earth is the inactive hub of activity. Discuss.                                          2m3. What does the word 'alive' imply in this context?                                          2m

Short answer questions:

Q.1. How can man benefit from being still for a while?Q.2. Nature has its own ways of retaliation in response to human selfishness. Comment.Q.3. What do the warmongers do now? What would the poet have them do instead?Q.4. Why does the poet say that he wants no truck with death?Q.5. Which victory has no survivors? Which victory would make us 'alive' in every sense of the word?Q.6. What is the poet's message for the reader?Q.7. How will the silence usher a feeling of brotherhood?Q.8. Identify the poetic devices used in the poem.Q.9. Discuss the lesson one may learn from Earth.Q.10. The poem is deceptively simple and carries a poignant message?

Short answer questions –1.What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?2.Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?3.What is the sadness that the poet refers to in the poem?4.Central idea of the poem.

BROAD QUESTIONS1)      Why does the poet count up to 12? What is the significance of 12?2)      What are the Environmental issues mentioned in the poem?3)      How is the idea of ‘universal brotherhood’ brought out in the poem?4)      Silence can be very eloquent sometimes. Mention when is silence preferred

to language?

5)      The poem begins with “ Now we will count “ and ends with “ Now I’ll count and you keep quiet’. What does the shift in the pronoun signify?

Lost Spring - Anees Jung

LOST SPRING:     Values – Sensitivity to the underprivileged, equity, equality, awareness, philanthropy, optimism, determination etc.

The story of Saheb and Mukesh, two children from the underprivileged sections of the society. Anees Jung, the author, analyzes the grinding poverty and traditions which condemn these children to a live of exploitation and perpetual poverty.SAHEB Saheb, a rag-picker, roams the streets barefoot with his friends. Garbage is gold for him because he often finds little treasures such as a ten rupee note or even discarded shoes Garbage is gold for his family because it ensures their daily survival.  His family moved from Dhaka to Delhi in search of better opportunities (gold) 

The family moved when their fields and homes were destroyed in the storm. 

Many other refugees came to the urban cities of India after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. 

False promises in the world of the underprivileged hamper their progress. Education is a luxury they cannot afford even if they thoroughly desire the same. 

Saheb’s name is ironical because contrary to its meaning (Lord of the Universe), the boy lives in abject poverty. 

Saheb has learnt to accept his reality and justify even the lack of something as basic as shoes. 

Through the story of the man from Udipi, the author, Anees Jung, compares the plight of the rag pickers to school-going students who have these amenities but take most of it for granted. 

His dream of learning to play tennis dies when he begins to work at a tea stall, answerable to someoneelse and no more a master of his time or his destiny.  M UKESH Mukesh is more confident than Saheb, not afraid of pursuing his dream, but currently makes bangles with his family. Dingy workplace with high-temperature furnaces and barely any air or light, leaves most children blind, exhausted and at times burnt. Their health is adversely affected.  Mukesh’s family is symbolic of how traditions are followed blindly. Women blindly behave as secondary objects and home makers while generation after generation blindly follows their predecessors into the same profession without question. The community believes this line of work to be their destiny and young girls barely realise the sanctity of the bangles they create till their wedding day. 

Despite being slightly better off than the rag pickers of Seemapuri, the bangle makers barely have enough to sustain themselves. If a person were lucky, in the sunset of their lives, they might be able to put a roof on their heads. 

People do not form unions due to lack of leaders and general awareness. 

Caught in a web of poverty, they are burdened by the stigma of their caste and maltreated by the vicious circle of sahukars, middlemen, policemen, law-keepers, bureaucrats and politicians. Though Mukesh has his dreams, they are limited to what he sees around him. 

Further on in life, they may become limited by the lack of ambition of the entire community unless he were to rebel against them to seek his own identity.SEEMAPURI vs. FIROZABADSeemapuriRight on the outskirts of Delhi, yet miles away in terms of the contrast in lifestyles.Ten thousand rag pickers live in the slums of Seemapuri in structures of mud, wth roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage and drainage.Ministers have assigned them ration cards which allow them to buy grain and vote, but they have no identity of their own.They live each day hoping to go to bed on a full stomach.

FirozabadThe residents are generations of bangle makers of which about 20,000 are children.The lanes stink of garbage. Homes are like holes with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no windows and several people and animals co-habiting each part.

The beauty of the bangles spread over each inch of each home is a contrast to the dire living conditions where the creators of the bangles reside.

Question Bank -Q.1. Why has garbage been called 'gold'?Q.2. What does Saheb's eagerness tell us about education in the underpriviledged section of the society?Q.3. How was Seemapuri on the outskirts of Delhi but miles away from it, metaphorically?Q.4. How did the boys justify roaming barefoot?Q.5. What was Saheb's dream? Would he be able to achieve it?Q.6. Why did Saheb seem unhappy despite a regular job, pay and meals?Q.7. Compare Firozabad to Seemapuri?Q.8. Why is it difficult to for children like Mukesh to escape a future in the bangle industry?Q.9. Describe the ordeals faced by the members of the bangle making industry? Q.10. What do Mukesh and Saheb dream of? Out of the two, who seems more likely to fulfil his dream?

Deep Water - William Douglas

DEEP WATER – Values: Determination, optimism, perseverance, diligence, openness to challenges, courage, persistence, endurance etc.

Q.1. How did William Douglas overcome his fear of water?        (2m)

Ans.1.  With an instructor and an overhead cable connected to his waist, Douglas began to learn to swim. He dipped his head, exhaled underwater, inhaled on surface, kicked with legs, and even swam in isolated or treacherous waters to overcome hydrophobia.

Q.2. Describe the misadventure that made Douglas hydrophobic?  (2m)

Ans.2.  Once, a bully pushed Douglas into the deep end of the YMCA pool. Gripped by paralyzing fear, in vain, Douglas tried to spring upwards to the surface twice. He almost lost consciousness before he was saved. This misadventure made Douglas hydrophobic.

Q.3. “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Discuss.                                              (8-10m)

Ans.3. Indeed, William O. Douglas’ Deep Water justifies President Roosevelt’s assertion that all we have to fear, is fear itself.

William O. Douglas’ aversion to water began with his mother’s warnings about the Yakima river and a childhood sea holiday where he first experienced the power of water.

The misadventure at the YMCA pool, where a bully pushed Douglas into the water nearly drowning him, turned the fear into a phobia. However Douglas decided to challenge this handicap.

With the help of an instructor, and using a pulley connected by a belt to his waist, Douglas re-learnt how to swim in a pool. He learnt to dip his head, exhale underwater and inhale on resurfacing.

Even after the trainer declared success, Douglas tested his skill in treacherous and unfamiliar waters till his phobia vanished completely. Thereafter, William O. Douglas realized that once the ‘fear of fear’ disappeared, true success awaited.

Q.4. Answer the following questions in 30-40 words each:

–      How did the anxiety towards water develop in Douglas?

–      Which misadventure turned Douglas’ anxiety into a phobia?

–      How did Douglas challenge his hydrophobia?

–      Why does Douglas say, ‘But I was not finished’?

–      What opinion of William Douglas do you form from this extract and what values can one learn from him?

Q.5. Answer the question in 120-150 words: Describe the misadventure that initiated Douglas’ hydrophobia.

Q.6. Draw a plot line for the chapter with an exposition, rising action, falling action and resolution

QUESTION BANK

Short answer questions –

1. What was the misadventure that William Douglas speaks about?

2. What was the writer’s first reaction on being flung into the pool?

3. Why did William Douglas hate the idea of getting into water?

4. How did the instructor build a swimmer out of William Douglas?

5. How did William Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?

BROAD QUESTIONS

1.       It is Douglas’ will power that enabled him to overcome his fear of water. This reveals that with a strong will human beings can overcome all kinds of fear. Explain  with two illustrations from real life.

2.       Which experience made the writer feel terrified of water?

3.       Explain in brief William Douglas’ attempt to come out of the pool.

4.       How did the instructor help the writer learn swimming?