A Roadside Stand

Summary:-
“A Roadside Stand “ is a poem which describes the lives of poor deprived people.
Furthermore, the poet contrasts the struggling lives of the countryside people with the
insensitive life of the city dwellers. The city dwellers don’t even bother to ponder on the
harsh condition of the roadside stand people. The city dwellers don’t think about the
struggles these roadside people have to go through in order to sell their goods. These
poor people have nothing to do except wait for the passing cars to stop and purchase
their products. If at all a car stops by, it is to know about directions or to make complain
about something. The poet deeply sympathises with these people and feels
compassion for them. This sympathy is evident in the portrayal of the roadside sheds in
a poignant manner.

There has been an extension of the shed in front by the occupants of the little old house.
Furthermore, this extension is around the edge of the road where the passage of traffic
takes place. It seems like the shack-owners want to implore the passers-by to purchase
something from the shack. These deprived people have a huge desire for the currency.

Unfortunately, the traffic goes past ignoring the shack. If by chance the traffic does stop,
it would come with a feeling of disappointment. They are very disturbed to see the poor
unattractive signboards. There is an offer of wild berries shack for sale in a wooden
quart (a quarter of a gallon). This place offers a peaceful natural stay for those who can
afford it. The poet becomes angry at this attitude of the ‘polished traffic’ and asks them
to move ahead.

The poet shows more concern for the sadness of the shed-owners than he does for the
landscape blemish. He believes that these people have a longing to handle some city
money. This money can reduce their suffering as one can see in movies. The political
party that enjoys power is the one that deprives them of a happy life.

The poet also mentions the news which points out the relocation of the poor villagers to
the vicinity of shops and theatres. There were big promises to ensure good care for
them. However, the government authorities became negligent of these promises.
Furthermore, the poet is angry at this behavior and calls them “greedy good-doers”. He
calls them “beasts of prey” who indulge in the exploitation of the poor villagers.
Read the extracts and answer the questions given below.

1.The little old house was out with a little new shed

In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped,

A roadside stand that too pathetically pled,

It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread,

But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports

The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.’

(a) Where was the stand?

Ans: –It was constructed outside a small, old house, by the side of the road.

(b)What words bring out the contrast in the rural and urban folk?

Ans: – The city folk ‘sped’ across while the stand ‘pathetically pled’ for some cash that
sustained the life of city dwellers. There was a huge gap between the rich and the poor.

(c)What did the stand expect?

Ans: – It expected some money for sustenance.

(d)Bring out the ironic situation in these lines?

Ans: – Most of the money supported urban dwellers and there was not enough to
support these rural dwellers. The idea conveyed is that the stand pleaded for some cash
that supported the elite living in towns.

(e)Explain the poetic device: ‘A roadside stand that too pathetically pled.’
Ans: – The poet has used personification. The stand begged like a human for some
sustainable.

2. At having the landscape marred with the artless paint

Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong

Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts,

Or crook-necked golden squash with silver warts,

Or beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene,

You have the money, but if you want to be mean,

Why keep your money (this crossly) and go along.’

(a)What does ‘polished traffic’ imply?

Ans: – They imply sophisticated and elegant vehicles, indicating the wealth of the
owners.

(b)What did the people speeding across feel?

Ans: – Most people were indifferent, some who gave the stand a thought were critical of
it as they felt that it was destroying the beauty of the area.

(c)What did the stand offer its customers?

Ans: – If offered wild berries in wooden containers, golden squash with silver warts, and
a moment of respite in beautiful surroundings.

(d)Why were the city folk critical of the stand?

Ans: – They were critical of the stand for they felt that it had marred the landscape.

(e)What do these lines spell about the city folk?

Ans: – They were mean and insensitive.

3. ‘The hurt to the scenery wouldn’t be my complaint

So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid:

Here far from the city, we make our roadside stand

And ask for some city money to feel in the hand

To try if it will not make our expanding,

And give us the life of the moving-pictures’ promise

That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.’

Would feel if someone offered him a similar solution.

(a)What was the general complaint against the stand?

Ans: – The general complaint against the stand was it destroyed the scenic beauty.

(b)What did the rural people expect?

Ans: – A better life that the party in power has promised.

(c)What is the poet’s complaint?

Ans: – The poet complains of the betrayal of the trust of the rural people by the
politicians.

(d)What does the stand symbolize?

Ans: – It is symbolic of the poor, rural folk.

4. It is in the news that all these pitiful kin

Are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in

To live in villages, next to the theatre and the store,

Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore,

While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey,

Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits

That is calculated to soothe them out of their wits,

And by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day,

Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way.’

(a)What has been provided to the village people?

Ans: – A theatre and a store are next to where they stay. Artificial necessities have been
created for the villagers without attending to their real needs.

(b)Why have these facilities been provided?

Ans: – This has been done to keep them distracted from the real issues.

(c)Who are ‘greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey’? Why?

Ans: – The city people are the greedy ones as they draw benefit and cheat the poor
people out of the reward that is rightfully theirs.

(d)Name the poetic device used, ‘greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey’.

Ans: – Oxymoron

(e)What is implied by ‘by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day’?

Ans: – The villagers have been lulled into a sleep of complacency but robbed off their
peaceful night shop.

(f)What is the ‘ancient way of sleeping’?

Ans: – Peacefully

5. ‘Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear

The thought of so much childish longing in vain,

The sadness that lurks near the open window there,

That waits all day in almost open prayer

For the squeal of brakes, the sound of a stopping car,

Of all the thousand selfish cars that pass,

Just one to inquire what a farmer’s prices are.

And one did stop, but only to plough up grass

In using the yard to back and turn around;

And another to ask the way to where it was bound;’

(a)What is ‘childish longing’?

Ans: – It is the childish and futile longing of the stand-owners that the vehicles would
pause to buy the farm products being sold at the roadside stall.

(b)Why is the ‘longing in vain’?

Ans: – The city folk is too indifferent and callous to the plight of the rural folk.

(c)What does the poet pray for?

Ans: – He prays that someone would halt there for the poor who sell their farm products
on the roadside stall.

(d)Why did the three cars in the thousands pause?

Ans: – (i) the first one to plough up the grass

(ii) Second, to ask the way (iii) Third, to ask if they could sell a gallon of gas.

(e)Explain: ‘to where it was bound’.

Ans: – bound—destined to go; speeding

6. ‘And another to ask could they sell it a gallon of gas

They couldn’t (this crossly); they had none, didn’t it see?

No, in-country money, the country scale of gain,

The requisite lift of spirit has never been found,

Or so the voice of the country seems to complain,

I can’t help owning the great relief it would be

To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.

And then the next day as I come back into the sane,

I wonder how I should like you to come to me

And offer to put me gently out of my pain.’

(a)What did the car ask for?

Ans: – It asked for a gallon of gas.

(b)What was the reaction at not finding it?

Ans: – The car owner became angry.

(c)What would relieve the poet?

Ans: – Putting the poor out of their misery by death.

(d)When the poet comes ‘back into the sane’ what does he realize?

Ans: – He realizes the irrationality of his desires. He also realizes how he would feel if
someone offered him a similar solution.

(e)What does the poet appeal?

Ans: – The poet appeals for a solution to the problem of the roadside owners.
Important Long/ Detailed Answer Type Questions- to be answered in about 100 -150
words each:

1.Through this poem, Frost underlines his sympathy for the rural people in opposition to
the uncaring capitalistic elite. Justify.

Ans: – Robert Frost presents the lives of the disadvantaged poor and in the process
shows the rich urban as being pitiless and indifferent.

On the one hand, he paints a pathetic picture of the lives of the poor who beg for
financial assistance to sustain themselves. They do not aspire to expand their business.
They seek help that has been promised to them by the political parties in their
manifestoes. Ironically, the products of these people are what give the city dwellers
enough to live their glamorous life. They move in sophisticated vehicles insensitive to
the terrible plight of the poor that begs for attention. These self-absorbed city dwellers
have the money but do not want to part with it. They have bought the poor and collected
them to live near the theatre and store, not for their benefit but as a distraction that
removes them from their reality. Frost refers to the city dwellers as ‘greedy good-doers,
beneficent beasts of prey’ as they drain the very life out of the poor. Like flies, they
swarm over their lives to cheat them for their selfish gains. They teach them ‘how to
sleep’ and lull them into complacency, and in the process rob them of their peace.

2. The rural-urban divide causes immense anguish to the poet. How does he express
this?

Ans: – The poet is upset looking at the miserable plight of the poor and their vain
childish longing that one day at least one of all the teeming cars will stop to buy their
products. The situation spells despondency because, for the city people, the poor rural
folk is non-existent.

Frost pleads the cause of these people. No amount of material gains of the country can
uplift the people while these masses live a subnormal existence. He would be
comforted if these people are put out of their misery. But, in his saner moments, he
realizes that it is not a simple job. Nevertheless, he pleads for help for these people that
will put him out of his agony.