"So blot their maps with slums as big as doom” says Stephen Spender. What does the poet want to convey?

The above line has been taken from the poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a slum’ written by Stephen Spender.

In the poem, the poet talks about the social indifference and poverty that is faced by the children even when it comes to education.

The children live in filthy conditions. Their clothes are torn.

Through the lines, “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom”, the poet expresses his sorrow by saying that though the walls of the slum classroom are decorated with a map and other pictures, the map itself is “a bad example” for the slum children as the map holds no meaning for the slum children.

Their school in the slum is not represented on that map.

So, the maps are useless for them.

The map does not truly represent the world of the slum children and to represent the world for these children, the maps should be blotted with slums.