CBSE Class 12 English A Roadside Stand Notes Set 03

About the Poet

Robert Frost (1874-1963), an iconic American poet, masterfully captured nature's essence and the human experience through his verses. Frost's distinct style blends simplicity with profound meaning, using rural settings to delve into universal truths.

Central Idea of the Poem

The poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ revolves around rural struggle and urban neglect, critiquing the urban-rural disparities. It highlights societal neglect, unfulfilled promises, and rural isolation, contrasting urban affluence with rural hardship. The poem portrays the desperation of rural folk who run a roadside stand, hoping for city money to improve their lives. However, they often face indifference or exploitation from passing urbanites. The poem also reflects on the longing for relief from suffering, whether the rural dwellers’ longing for economic stability or the speaker’s contemplation of the ultimate release from pain. It explores economic inequality, societal neglect and the yearning for a better life.

Explanation of the Poem

Stanza 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.
The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead.
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
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.

Exp. On the roadside, there is an old house which has an extended shed. This shed is extended towards the edge of the road so that the fast moving vehicles speeding by may notice and stop there to buy the food and refreshments sold there. This shed made a pitiable sight. It seemed desperate and in need of financial help or money so that the rural folk could sustain themselves.
The poor feel that the money the rich spend to adorn their gardens with flowers can be used to better the lot of the less privileged. But the rich people passed by without paying any attention to the shed. If anyone cared to stop, it was only due to the irritation at the paint and decor that spoiled the picturesque scenery of the area. Also, the shed had a board on which the word STAND was painted such that the letters S and N were written in reverse displaying the illiteracy and carelessness of the local people.
This shed sold wild berries in wooden boxes and gourds with twisted necks. Besides these things, the place also offered a stay in the scenic surroundings. The poet then mentions that the poor feel that the rich who passed by the place had the money but had no desire to spend it. They wanted to keep the money with themselves.

Stanza 2

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 hand
To try if it will not make our being expand,
And give us the life of the moving-pictures’ promise
That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.

Exp. The poet does not want to accuse the rural folk of marring the beauty of the landscape. He is more worried about the untold pain suffered by the people belonging to the countryside. These people have installed a roadside stand so far away in the countryside just to earn some hard cash. They long to have a comfortable lifestyle as depicted in movies. They hope against hope that the city citizens may fulfill the promise of giving them economic independence that the party in power is not providing them.

Stanza 3

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 are 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.

Exp. It is in the news that these rural people are to be relocated to places where they will have all comforts. They will enjoy privileges of the theatre and the local store just like their urban counterparts. These people will be so busy in enjoying these comforts that they will have no time to think about themselves or fight for their rights.
However, in the garb of benefits that they will provide, the city people will exploit them. Later, these privileged people will easily forget the promises they made, leaving these poor people more impoverished. Further, the changes introduced by the city people would make the rural people less aware and active. As a result, the rural folk would not only be impoverished but would also lose their traditional ways of life and values.

Stanza 4

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 plow up grass
In using the yard to back and turn around;
And another to ask the way to where it was bound;
And another to ask could they sell it a gallon of gas
They couldn’t (this crossly); they had none, didn’t it see?

Exp. The poet is very disturbed and feels very helpless when he sees their childish longing for money which is never fulfilled. These people keep their windows open all day as if in prayer waiting desperately and uselessly for someone to stop at the stand. Out of thousands of cars passing by, just one stopped only to inquire the prices of things sold there. Another stopped just to use the backyard of the place to reverse their car. Another car stopped just to inquire about the directions for where it wanted to go. The fourth stopped to know if they could sell them a gallon of gas (petrol). The farmer grumbles in an angry manner that they could see for themselves that it was not sold there.

Stanza 5

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 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.

Exp. Finally, the poet bemoans that lack of financial independence and economic progress in rural life. As a result, there is a collective dissatisfaction and complain regarding the lack of improvement in the countryside. The poet strongly feels that the countryside people should be freed from the pain of poverty and deprivation. Next morning, when the poet gains his senses, he wonders what if someone else thinks in the same manner for him so that he is gently relieved from his pain and agony of seeing the miserable condition of these people.

Word-Meaning

• pathetically pled — pitifully begs
• dole — donation
• polished traffic — well off and sophisticated city dwellers who pass by
• artless paint of — poorly painted
• quarts — containers
• crook-necked — twisted-necked
• silver warts — silver lumps on them
• hurt to the scenery — harm caused to the natural scenery
• trusting sorrow — The rural people trust their rich brothers in cities to help them, but feel sad when their trust is breached by the city people through their indifference.
• moving-pictures — films
• beneficent beasts of prey — Men in power are beasts of prey in the garb of benefactors. They exploit common people for their vested interests.
• selfish cars — selfish owners of the cars

Literary devices used in the Poem

• Tone: Reflective and melancholic
• Rhyme Scheme: The poem is not in free verse but has no set rhyme scheme
• Metaphor: The stand is a metaphor for economic challenges, serves as a plea for support from the urban population. Stanza 2, line 17 ‘trusting sorrow’ (indicates the trust and hope of the rural folk)
• Alliteration: Stanza 1, Line 3 ‘pathetically pled’ (repetition of ‘p’ sound); Stanza 3 Line 27 ‘Greedy good doers’ and ‘Beneficent Beasts’ (repetition of ‘g’ and ‘b’ sounds)
• Transferred epithet: Stanza 1, Line 7 ‘polished traffic’ (the word polished actually refers to the city folk); Stanza 4, Line 37 ‘selfish cars’ (the word ‘selfish’ is used for city people)
• Oxymoron: Stanza 3 Line 27 ‘Greedy good doers’ and ‘Beneficent Beasts’
• Personification: Stanza 1, Line 3 ‘A roadside stand that too pathetically’