A Roadside Stand

Quick Overview: A Roadside Stand

The poem, A Roadside Stand, is Robert Frost’s criticism of an unequal society
where there is a large division between the rich and the poor, the haves and
the have nots owing to the iniquitous distribution of wealth. The poem depicts
with clarity the plight of the poor and the complex dynamics of their existence.
It also focuses on the unfortunate fact that the unequal progress and
development between cities and villages has led to the feeling of distress and
unhappiness in the rural people.

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 poem starts with the description of the roadside stand. A small-time
farmer who puts a little shed in part of his house several thousands of cars
sped past it. He desires to sell wild berries, squash and other products. The
farmer does not like charity. He tries to sell his products for money. He
believes that money can give him a better lifestyle as he saw in movies.

Stanza 2

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,
However, his hopes are never fulfilled. People in cars go past without even
giving a cursory look at their stall and if few of them happened to look at it,
they see how the letters N and S had been turned wrong. They believe that
such badly painted signs spoil the beauty of the countryside.

Stanza 3

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:
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.

The farmer tells the rich to keep their money if they are meant to be so cruel
and mean. He is not hurt that they do not notice the stand but he is hurt at the
way he is treated and ignored. He wishes for some city life and money which
he has seen in movies and other media but the political parties are denying
him all these plush lives.
 Stanza 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 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.
It is known that some good doers plan to remove their poverty. They aimed to
buy their property on the roadside to build theatres and stores. Good-doers plan
to shift the villagers into the village huddled together. They wished to teach
them the ways that could change their good and healthy habits. They even
aimed to teach them to sleep during the day time. The greedy good doers and
beneficent beasts of prey desire to force the benefits on the poor village people
and befool them.

Stanza 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 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?
Frost talks about his own personal feelings. He is intolerable towards the
farmer’s battered hopes. The windows of the farmer’s house just ache to hear
the sound of a car stopping to make some purchase. However, they are always
disappointed as the cars stop either to enquire about the police or about the
gas stations.

Stanza 6

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.
The poet feels quite discreet at the pitiable sufferings of the poor village folk.
He even had a childish desire for all the poor to be done away with at one
stroke to end their pain. But he knew that it was childish and vain. So, he
desired that someone relieves him of his pain by killing him.

Poem Analysis: A Roadside Stand

Form (structure or pattern) of the poem – The poem has 56 lines divided in 6
Stanzas.
Style (literary elements used by the poet) of the poem – The poem is written in
a rhyme scheme of ABAB.
Tone (the poet’s or reader’s attitude towards the subject) of the poem – The
poem has a sympathetic tone.

Poetic Devices

Metaphor – A figure of speech that directly refers to one thing by mentioning

another. From the poem:
“Trusting Sorrow”
Alliteration – The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of
adjacent or closely connected words. From the poem:
“Greedy good doers”
“Beneficent Beasts”
Personification – A literary tool where you assign the qualities of a person to
something that isn’t human. From the poem:
“A roadside stand that too pathetically piled”
Transferred Epithet – A figure of speech in which the syntactic relationship
between two terms is interchanged. From the poem:
“Polished Traffic”
“Selfish cars”
Oxymoron – A figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each
other. From the poem:
“Greedy good doers”
“Beneficent Beasts”
Q. 1. The city folk who drove through the countryside hardly paid any heed to
the roadside stand or to the people who ran it. If at all they did, it was to
complain. Which lines bring this out? What was their complaint about?

A) The lines that bring out the arrogance of the passers-by are:
“Or if ever aside a moment, the out of sorts
At having the landscape marred….
They complained that the disfigured paint of the stall spoilt the beauty of the
landscape, the signposts pointed the wrong way and the stalls were not
maintained.”

Q. 2. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?

A) The people of the roadside stand pled that some polished city traffic should
stop by and buy their goodies so that they could make some money to improve
their livelihood.

Q. 3. The government and other social service agencies appear to help the
poor rural people, but actually do them no good. Pick out the words and
phrases the poet uses to show their double standards.
A) The poet uses the words ‘greedy good-doers’, ‘beneficent beasts of prey’
and ‘enforcing benefits that are calculated’ to show their double standards.

Q. 4. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it in vain?

A) The poet refers to the desireful longing of the stall owners for some city folk
to stop by and give them an opportunity to make some money. But their
waiting is vain because the cars just pass by without thinking of the hope of
these poor deprived people. If at all they stop, it is to ask the way or to take
turn or complain about the signs.
Q. 5. Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the
thought of the plight of the rural people?

A) The lines from the poem that express the poet’s insufferable pain are:
“I wonder how I should like you to come to me
And offer to put me gently out of my pain.”

Q. 1. Why didn’t the ‘polished traffic’ stop at the roadside stand?

A) The ‘polished traffic’ sped past the roadside stand and did not stop there as
their mind is focused only on their destination. Moreover, they were critical of
the poor decor of the stand and complaint that it reduced the beauty of
countryside.

Q. 2. What news in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ is making its round in the
village?
A) The news is about the resettlement of the rural people who will be resettled
in the villages, next to the theaters and the stores. They would be close to the
cities and would not have to worry about themselves any more. But it was all
an activity of “greedy good-doers”.

Q. 3. Why do people at the roadside stand ask for city money?

A) They ask for city money so that they can lead a life of happiness as the rural
people running the roadside stand are poor and deprived, unlike the people of
the city. This much-needed city money can give them a good livelihood.

Conclusion: A Roadside Stand

Robert Frost, in his poem, A Roadside Stand, has very clearly visualized the
plight of the rural folk. The city folk who derived through the countryside
hardly pay any heed to roadside stands or the people who run them. The poet
has urged the necessity of the balanced development of both.