AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM

In this poem, the poet voices his concern for children who live all their life in slums. The poet sees some children
sitting in a school classroom in a slum. The poor children in classroom are pale looking. Their hair is like rootless
weeds. They belong to the dirty world of cramped hole. Their future is dark. There is a tall girl. She is sitting with her
head weighed down. A boy looks as thin as paper. His eyes look like that of rat. Another one has twisted bones. At the
back of the class, there is a little sweet child. He has remained unnoticed because of the dim light in the classroom. He
has dreamy eyes. He wants to escape from the boring classroom, climb the trees and play like squirrels.
The walls of the classroom are faded cream coloured. On these walls, there are painted names of
the donors. The poet also sees a picture of Shakespeare and clear cloudless sky in the morning. There is map of the
world also. It shows beautiful hills and valleys. But he says that for poor children, this world shown on the map is not
their world. Their world is limited to what they can see from the windows of classroom. Their world is not sunny. It is
darkened with fog of poverty and pain. The poet says that the pictures and maps hung on the walls of the classroom
have no meaning for these poor children. So in place of the maps of the world, there should be only the picture of big
slums on these walls.
These children spend all their lives in homes that are no better than cramped holes. They are like
catacombs. Here the poor children spend their lives from birth to death. They are so weak and thin that their bones can
be clearly seen under their skin.
The poet wants the school governor, inspector and also the visitors to take steps by which the poor
children can be helped. They should take them out of these places that are no better than catacombs. If they dont help
these poor children, their world will remain dark and unfulfilled. They should be kept in places where they can not
only read from their books but also play among the trees.

A THING OF BEAUTY
In this poem, the poet tries to explain how a beautiful thing is a joy forever. It never passes into nothingness. He says
that the loveliness of beautiful thing never fades. It always remains fresh in our memory. It serves the purpose of a
quiet bower for us.
The poet says that a beautiful thing is a kind of flowery band that binds us to this earth. It is beauty that keeps us
moving from one day to the next day. The poet lists some of the unhappy things about human life on the earth. Man
always remains depressed at heart. He passes all his days in constant grief or disease. But in spite of all these unhappy
things, there are moments of joy when man looks at some object of beauty. It is the beauty of those objects that takes
away the gloom from our sad hearts.
The poet lists some such beautiful things. He says we have the sun and moon. There are big and small trees that give
cool shade for simple sheep. There are lovely daffodils and cool clear stream. There are musk-rose that bloom in
forest. We also derived joy by thinking of nice things in our imagination.
The poet says that God himself has created various beautiful objects. These objects are an endless source of joy. The
poet compares them to an endless fountain of immortal drink