A Roadside Stand Summary Reference-to-Context Questions Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. 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, a. Where had the little new shed been put up and wh ? Answer: A poor farmer had put up the shed at the edge of the road. b. What imagery does the first line create? Answer: It creates the imagery of an impoverished farmer's home and a roadside stand that he has set up.c. Where is the shed set up? Answer: “file little new shed is set up in front of his house which is on the edge of the road. d. What is the poetic device used in the third line? Answer: Personification has been used in the third line. The shed has been personified. It pleads pathetically for some extra cash flow. 2. 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. Why does the peasant not want bread? Answer: The poet stresses that the peasant does not want bread or the basic amenities of life but a source of alternate income, apart from his trade. b. What does the peasant yearn for? Answer: The peasant yearns for some of the city money to sustain him better, and liberate him from his hand-to-mouth existence c. How does money sustain cities? Answer: Money in the cities, always in excess, brings luxurious benefits. d. Explain: ‘flower of cities’. Answer: This is a metaphor. Just as flowers are kept from withering with extra care and nurturing, similarly, extra cash flow helps cities to bloom and flourish. 3. 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 a. Explain the poetic device in ‘The polished traffic’ Answer: ‘The polished traffic’ is a transferred epithet that depicts the sophisticated, urban city- dwellers. b. Why are their minds ahead? Answer: The urban rich have their minds preoccupied with their own lives and its related problems.c. How do they react to the presence of the stand? Answer: They are indifferent to the presence of the roadside stand, if ever they chance to look at it. d. Why do they feel out of sorts? Answer: The presence of the roadside stand annoys them as they feel that it mars the beauty of the landscape. 4. 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, a. What do N and S turned wrong symbolise? Answer. These inelegantly painted signposts and other rustic signs are a source of annoyance to the urban rich b. What does the stand sell? Answer: It sells some home-grown produce like wild berries, crook-necked golden squash with silver warts and amateur paintings of the mountain scene.c. Explain: ‘beauty rest in a mountain scene’. Answer: This probably refers to a scenic painting made by the inhabitants of the roadside stand, to sell to the rich people d. What qualities of the offered articles make them unfit for sale? Answer: The articles for sale at the roadside stand are wild and lack the polish of similar articles available in the cities. Thus, they hold no appeal for the urban rich who drive past. 5. You have the money, but if you want to be mean, Why keep your money (this crossly) and go along. The hurt to the scenery wouldn't be my complaint So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid: a. How do the rich behave meanly with the poor? Answer: When the rich city people refuse to buy anything from the roadside stand, the poor peasant feel dejected and angry. They ask the city men to keep all their money with themselves and leave b. Explain, ‘trusting sorrow’.b. Explain, ‘trusting sorrow’. Answer: ‘Trusting sorrow’ is a metaphor that refers to the fact that the peasants set up their shed trusting that their wares will attract the city folks to buy their products and thus, provide additional income. However, they are filled with sorrow when no one shows interest. c. What is the poet’s complaint? Answer The rich have hollow complaints such as hurt to the scenery. They are unable to understand the concerns of the poor and their core level struggles. d. What is ‘left unsaid’? Answer: The poor wait in hope expecting the rich to fulfill their promises. Gradually, their hopes give way to the bitter realisation that the promises of the rich are not meant to be fulfilled. 6. 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.a. What is ‘city money’? Answer: Using light satire, Robert Frost criticises the political party in power for preventing the peasants from enjoying the lifestyle like that of the city-dwellers. b. What do the peasants want from the rich? Answer: The poet stresses that the peasants want the generosity of the rich. They want promises fulfilled in order to have some extra cash to alleviate their suffering as promised by movies and political parties. C. Why is feeling money in hand important? Answer: it is important for the farmers to have the promised money in hand, instead of the empty and false promises of the politicians. d. Explain: ‘our being expand’. Answer: The extra inflow of cash would help improve the quality of the lives of the poor peasants. 7. Itis in the news that all these pitiful kin Are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in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, a. Who are the ‘pitiful kin’? Answer: Pitiful kin refers to the poor farmers living in rustic farmlands. b. Who is buying them out and why? Answer: Real estate agents buy them out and force farmers from villages to cities, promising riches. It benefits them temporarily, but the bulk of the benefit goes to these unscrupulous agents. c. What is the good news for the poor? Answer: The good news for the poor is that the government is planning to relocate them, as part of a welfare scheme for the poor. d. Why are they to be placed next to the theatre and the stores? Answer:planning to relocate them, as part of a welfare scheme for the poor. d. Why are they to be placed next to the theatre and the stores? Answer: Cunning and manipulative politicians relocate them next to the theatre and the stores to make them dependent and unable to think for themselves. 8. 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. a. Explain: ‘greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey’ Answer: Greedy good-doers are apparent benefactors but actually ‘beasts of prey’ exploit the innocent village folk by giving them a short term sense of security b. Who are these people? Answer: The greedy good-doers and beneficient beasts arethe civic authorities, real estate agents who make the poor complacent and lull them into a false sense of security. c. Name the poetic devices used in the first line. Answer: ‘Greedy good-doers’ and ‘beneficent beasts of prey’ are both oxymorons. Alliteration has also been used in the first line. d. How do ‘they’ destroy the poor? Answer: The brokers and estate agents promise farmers’ benefits, so that the farmers will not have to think for themselves as they will not be needy. Now sluggish, farmers will sleep all day, thereby losing their sleep by night. 9. Sometimes | feel myself | 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, a. What can the poet not bear? Answer: The interminable wait of the farmer for prospectiveThe interminable wait of the farmer for prospective customers, distresses the poet. b. What is ‘childish longing’? Why is it in vain? Answer: The poor people's futile expectation for city money has been compared to children longing for things beyond their reach. It is in vain as the rich are too self-absorbed and hard-hearted to help them. c. Explain the poetic device used in the third line. Answer: Sadness has been personified, as it lies in wait, near the open window, desperately praying for a customer to appear. d. What does it pray for? Answer: The personification is sustained as sadness prays for a city-dweller to stop by, and at least, enquire about the prices of the farmer's wares. 10. Of all the thousand selfish cars that pass, Just one to enquire 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? a. Explain: ‘selfish cars’. Answer: This is a transferred epithet. The people sitting in the cars are selfish as no one has charity as motive as they stop by. b. Name the reasons for which the cars stop occasionally. Answer: The cars stop either to reverse, or to ask for directions or to ask if they could buy a gallon of gas. c. What is the queer demand of the city folk? Answer: The insensitive city people ask if the roadside stand sold a gallon of gas, knowing fully well that gas was well beyond their means. d. What makes the people at the roadside stand ‘cross’? Answer: With every passing car that stops, the farmer's hope rises, only to be disappointed. None of them seem to want what he has to offer. This makes the people atthe roadside stand cross. 11. 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, a. What is country money? Answer: Country money is the meagre income and the meagre profit that the poor farmers make. In no way does it compare with the affluence of the rich in cities. b. How has the country scale of gain helped the farmers? Answer: It has not freed them from their poverty. It has not provided them with the extra cash that is required to improve the quality of their lives. c. How does money provide ‘the requisite lift of spirit’? Answer: Money is a very important factor in modern living. It provides confidence and gives an additional lift to one's spirit. 2 iw 3 tas __d. What is the complaint of the villagers? Answer: No matter how hard the villagers try, they can never make as much money as their counterparts in the city. Thus, they never have the money to enjoy the luxuries that the city people have. 12. | 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 | come back into the sane, | wonder how | should like you to come to me And offer to put me gently out of my pain. a. What kind of relief does the poet visualise for the poor? Answer: Frustrated by the helplessness of the villagers, Frost offers to end the lives of the poor at one stroke and liberate them from their grief and pain. b. What makes him change his mind? Answer: Thankfully, common sense prevails before he has taken the thought too far. Sanity returns to him the day after he has had this thought. c. What is the truth that he realises?c. What is the truth that he realises? Answer: When Frost wonders how he might feel when someone found him in pain and decided that death was the best option for him, he realises the futility of his earlier thought. d. What is the poet's pain? Answer: The poet's pain is the iniquitous divide between the rich and the poor, the interminable wait that the poor must endure for their misery to be addressed and their suffering to end.