Stephen Spender in his poem, an …

"An Elementary School Classroom  in A Slum" paints a dismal picture of poverty by portraying the life of poor slum children who spend their entire life in poverty and have no opportunity to enjoy the real blessings of life.

• The poet Stephen Spender displays his concern towards the miserable condition of life of slum children due to utter poverty.
• He describes the sad and pathetic look of the children through moving word-pictures like 'gusty waves', 'hair torn', 'paper-seeming boy', etc.
• The lack of proper food and nutrition has made them look 'pale' and 'stunted' like 'rootless weeds.'
• The classrooms in which they study smell like 'sour cream' and the pictures in their classroom of 'Shakespeare' and 'world map' seem completely meaningless.
• The look of the world from their classroom window shows their uncertain and miserable future.
• Their entire lives have been spent in cramped holes and their lives are foggy and like endless nights.
• Overall, the author intends to show how poverty snatches all the joys of our life and make life utterly unbearable.

 The poet describes the dismal and impoverished world of the slum through the images of the pale and undernourished children. The little homes of these children have been equated with cramped holes. The dilapidated school building and its tarnished walls have limited the vision of the world to the children.