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.
(i) Why is Shakespeare described as wicked?
(ii) Explain; from fog to endless night?
(iii) In the context of the slum school why does the poet mention children are on slag heap?
(iv) Why does the skin of slum children peep through by bones?
- The poet observes that Shakespeare is 'wicked' because a reading of his works by the schoolchildren in a slum will make them think of worlds and possibilities other than that of their immediate reality. It might lead them to question and think which could enable them to raise their voices in protest against the terrible conditions under which they continue to live.
- The underprivileged children who live in these slums do not have a sense of time and space because everywhere they are hemmed in by their circumstances. Their time and space are like a foggy slum that blots out their maps with a future that cannot be any different from their present. They are doomed to live their lives in such squalor and penury, relegated to the margins of society. For them, there is nothing to look forward to, their future is enshrouded in the fog of misery.
- The children are malnourished and thus, their skin looks sagging and loose on their body.
- The children have not had proper food and nutrition, thus, their bones peep through.