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READ THIS
The poet looks at the grim conditions prevailing at a primary school in a British slum. He calls on the
authorities to do something to lift these children from their situation of educational squalor to a world of
real literacy and learning.
ABOUT THE POET
Spender was born in London in 1909. His parents were both literary people, his father being a journalist
while his mother was a painter and a poet.
Theirs was middle class society and, typically for those days, they tended to despise the ways of the
working class. His parents' attitude would naturally influence the poet as a young boy -- hence the theme
of his poem "My parents kept me from children who were rough".
The poet initially attended Oxford University but did not finish his degree. Indeed, he later boasted about
the fact that he had never ever passed an exam in his whole life.
While he was at Oxford, however, he fell under the influence of the poet W.H. Auden with whom he did
some major collaboration. Later he would also pal up with both Louis MacNeice and Cecil Day-Lewis,
as well has many other rising English poets.
Instead of finishing his degree, Spender spent time in Germany where he studied some of the German
poets.
Germany during the 1920s was a hotbed of socialism and Spender became caught up in this political
movement -- becoming for a time an ardent admirer of communism itself.
The world in which he lived, however, quickly came to be dominated by a struggle between fascism and
communism, and Spender became involved in this clash of ideals. Indeed, he even launched himself into
the Spanish Civil War where he sided with the socialist forces opposed the fascist dictator, General
Franco.
Despite his lack of a degree, Spender's proven poetic track record allowed him to teach at various
American universities. In 1965 he was appointed "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry" to the
United States Library of Congress.
He would eventually return to England, however, where he took up a post as Professor of Rhetoric at
Gresham College and, later, Professor of English at the University College in London.
As early as 1962, Spender was awarded a C.B.E. and in 1983 he was honoured with a knighthood for his
poetry. He died in 1995 at the age of 86.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones."
- What words tell us that the poet probably does not have the slums of London in
mind? (2)
[Need help?]
The poet refers to "slag heap". Slag heaps are piles of coal, probably the product of coal mines
or perhaps heaps of coal for the industrial furnaces.
The slum mentioned here is therefore probably that of either an industrial town or a coal mining town.
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- What do we learn about these children from the words "these children wear skins peeped through
by bones"? (4)
[Need help?]
The children are very thin, probably malnourished so that their bones can be seen through their skin.
Notice that the poet says that the children "wear" their skins as if it is an article of clothing. Their
skin is therefore not part of them.
At the same time, their clothing itself will be full of holes. In such a way, their skin appears to have
metaphorical holes in it, revealing their bones.
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"Unless, governor, teacher, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs."
- What is the purpose of mentioning this list of people? (2)
[Need help?]
The poet is actually addressing these people, speaking to them, begging them to do something positive
to relieve the plight of these children.
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- Explain the image of the windows opening on their lives "like catacombs". (4)
[Need help?]
A catacomb is an underground cemetery. The classroom, says the poet, is like an underground cemetery
in which all education will simply die and remain buried unless something positive can be done to
rejuvenate it or resurrect it.
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- What does the poet suggest can be done for the children? Is he being realistic? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is possibly suggesting field trips for the children so that they may see the countryside or the
seaside. This will enable the children to experience for themselves that the other world of their learning
does indeed exist just as the books tell them.
He also suggests that the children be given plenty of genuine books to read which will trigger their
imaginations.
What the poet is suggesting is indeed realistic, although it would entail huge amounts of money. Only a
government would have such resources.
The poet is therefore suggesting that the government itself become involved in changing the educational
system so as to uplift the slum schools.
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"Let their tongues
Run naked into books, the white and green leaves open."
- What does the poet mean when he begs the authorities to "let their tongues run naked into
books"? (2)
[Need help?]
To "run naked" is the ultimate image of freedom, of paradise before the fall. Let the children be
free to read without constraint.
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- Explain the contrast between "the white and the green leaves". Why is each
"opening"? (4)
[Need help?]
The green leaves are those of the plants in the forests. The white leaves are those pages in a book.
The green leaves open in the spring, the season of sunshine and growth. The white leaves open to
enable the children to read, to open their minds with beauty, enrichment and dreams.
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" Theirs whose language is the sun."
- Contrast this language with the world in which the children live. (2)
[Need help?]
The books, says the poet, bring sunshine and beauty into the children's imaginary world which would
otherwise be bleak and grey with the smog of the slums.
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