Stanza 1
" 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 . "
Explanation : The poet here describes the pathetic and miserable condition of the children sitting in a classroom in a slum school . The children's faces are unlike the usual children of schools . They are far away from the beautiful sights of nature . They look weak and hungry .
Their unkempt hair looks like rootless weeds on their pale faces . Unlike other schoolchildren who are usually energetic and full of life , these children seem withered and lifeless . The children of the slum are also unwanted in society , just as weeds are unwanted in a garden .
sad thoughts . The girl is perhaps physically and mentally exhausted due to her poverty.
The other students of the class are not in a better situation either . Just like the girl who is burdened with the problems in her life , there is a boy sitting in the class who is as thin as paper , undoubtedly because of malnutrition . He has big eyes like those of a rat . Yet another boy in the classroom has inherited his father's arthritis . Because of the disease , he has stunted growth and his bones are twisted .
He has inherited this disease from his father and recites his lesson from his desk in a mellow but weak voice . There is another sweet boy sitting at the back of the class . He is sitting there unnoticed , and dreaming of squirrels playing in a tree . The dull and monotonous atmosphere in the classroom is perhaps unable to arrest his attention .
Stanza 2
" On sour cream walls , donations . Shakespeare's head , Cloudless at dawn , civilised 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 . "
Explanation : In this stanza , the poet describes the dirty classroom . The walls of the classroom are pale and dirty , and give a rather unpleasant feeling . On the walls are displayed the names of people who have given donations . There is a picture of Shakespeare on the wall . The pictures of domes of big cities represent the quality of life in those cities . The early morning sky is shown as cloudless in another picture .
There is also a picture of the beautiful Tyrolese valley , a region in the Austrian Alpine province , adorned with flowers . The world map which divides the world into countries , big and small , symbolically gives the children the whole world .
But all these pictures have no meaning to these impoverished children . The world depicted on these walls is not the world of these children . Their world does not contain huge domes or prosperity or the scenic beauty presented in the picture . Unfortunately , their world is painted with fog , the fog of hopelessness and hunger . Their future is grim and uncertain , and sealed with a dark and dull sky . The poet again says that their world is far away from the actual world of rivers and capes . These things are like stars in the sky , which they cannot touch .
Stanza 3
" 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 . "
Explanation : The poet calls the portrait of Shakespeare wicked because it is meaningless for children going to a slum school . There is no quality education in these schools . The children here will never learn about Shakespeare's work . The map is also a bad example , because , for these children , their classroom is the whole world for them . There is no world beyond their poverty , hunger and hopelessness . So , these maps are unreal for these children . The beautiful world with its offerings like the sun , ships , love and care only tempt them to steal because they cannot have all these worldly things . They live in cramped holes - like hutments and there is no end to their misery . There is a perpetual state of gloom , hunger and despair .
Their bodies look like garbage heaps . They are very skinny and their bones are peeping out of their skin . The state of poverty is intensified by the fact that the glasses which these children wear are cracked and look like broken pieces of a bottle .
All of their life is being destroyed here in the slum . The slum is like a blot as big as doom on the maps of these children , i.e. , the lives of these children .
Stanza 4
" 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 . "
Explanation : These children will continue to suffer this hell unless government officials , like governors , inspectors or educationists who visit such schools , come forward to help them . The poet wants the civilised world to bridge the gap between them and the world of these children . They should offer these children a glimpse of a better world so that the maps become their window to the beautiful and charming world outside . Then these windows of the elementary school classroom , which confine all their hopes and dreams , must be broken so that these children can be brought out in the green fields away from the filthy surroundings . The poet desires that these children should be allowed to run freely on the golden sands under a clear sky , i.e. , make progress .
They should be allowed to have quality education . The poet feels that education can help them immensely because , according to him , history is written by those whose language has the warmth and energy of the sun .
