GDGKKD/XII/ROADSIDE STAND HANDOUT/XII/2024-25

G.D.GOENKA PUBLIC SCHOOL

EAST DELHI
A ROADSIDE STAND HANDOUT

Name :_______________ Class & Section : XII _________ Date:_________

Theme
The poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ is the poet’s plea for consideration for the simple people of the countryside
whose lives have shown no progress. He expresses his pain at their sadness and sorrow and seeks support
and relief for them. He hopes someone would work unselfishly for their rehabilitation and not exploit
them. He brings out the wide disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ with pitiless clarity and
humanity and seems to suggest that the economic well-being of a country depends on a balanced
development of villages and cities.
Summary
‘A Roadside Stand’ portrays the poor country people whose earnest desire is to rise above their
wretchedness. They attempt to do this by putting up roadside stands and trying to sell whatever they can to
improve their lives. But the city people just speed by in their cars and do not even notice them, and when
they do, it is with irritation at their having spoiled the natural landscape with their badly written signs.
Frost very aptly portrays the country people’s anger at the selfishness of the city dwellers for all they want
is to attain the standard that they have seen promised to them in movies, but which they feel is being
denied to them by the present government.
They do not want charity and the poet makes it very clear that the donors are actually ruining their lives by
calling these so-called benevolent people greedy and beasts of prey. They move them to countryside to
live near theatres and shops and encourage them to live idle lives, which will take away their peace and
wits.
The poet feels pain on seeing the country people’s intense longing for a better life and their sadness at the
non-fulfilment of their dreams when not even one car stops to inquire about the goods they are selling.
The city dwellers are projected as being involved in the own lives with no thought for anyone else.
The poem shows the heartlessness of the city dwellers through the poet’s insane desire to put an end to the
country people so that there would be relief from their complaints about the lack of upliftment of their
lives. The poem ends with the poet’s remorse at these feelings when he realizes how he would feel if
someone were to try to end his pain in the same way.

Introduction
In ‘A Roadside Stand’, the poet Robert Frost describes the miserable condition of the people living in the
countryside. The city people who drive through the countryside hardly stop at the roadside stand nor do
they care about the people who run it. If at all they do stop, they do so to criticise the place and the people.
Frost describes the lives of the poor people with pitiless clarity and with deepest sympathy and humanity.

A Roadside Stand Explanation

The little old house ……………..artless paint
There was a small house with a new shed outside it. The road was busy with cars and other vehicles
moving here and there. The shed was built to display items on sale and the owner expected the passing
vehicles to stop by and buy the things or at least have a look at them. The condition of the shed aroused
one’s pity because it displayed the sad feelings of the owner who was desperate to earn some money. They
did not seek any favour or piece of bread from the city people but wanted some money because the flow of
money helps everyone to use it and benefit from it. Just like the money with the city people helps them
lead a better life, similarly, if it will flow from their pockets into the pockets of the shed owner, it will
benefit his life too. The cars that pass by are sparkling but they never notice the shed. They are thinking of
their destination only. If by chance they do stop at the shed, they just complain that the shabby paint of the
huts and sheds there has spoiled the beauty of the landscape.
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Of signs that ………………….. my complaint

Here the poet says that as the people living in these sheds are poor their surroundings are not well-
maintained. The signboards indicating directions of north and south are pointing towards the wrong
directions. The sheds have farm produce on sale – wild berries, golden squash with silver coloured warts
on it, kept in wooden baskets. The place is beautiful and people should stop here and enjoy the mountain
scenery. If they have money then they should buy some things but if they are selfish then they should keep
their money with themselves and not stop there. The poet says that he does not complain that the sheds
have spoiled the scenery of the place.

So much as the ……………… keeping from us.

The poet says that these people who have opened the shed are keeping faith in a promise which was never
done to them. Here, the promise is their expectation that the cars passing by will stop at the shed and buy
some stuff from them. They have built this shed far from the city and they expect that the city people will
flow some money out of their pockets into the hands of the shed owner. The shed owner wants to feel the
money on his hands. Just like they see in pictures that the one who works hard achieves quick success and
money, they have laid their trust on these ideas and expect to get some money. Frost adds that the political
party in power has stopped the flow of cash from the city dwellers to the rural people.

It is in the news ……………………………… the ancient way.

It is in news that soon all these sheds and huts will be bought by the government and these people will be
relocated to the villages. Near their houses there will be movie theatre and grocery store. They will be so
happy there that they will not worry about their future. The poet says greedy good-doers and beneficent
beasts i.e. such people who show to be doing good deeds but are actually greedy and are animals of prey
who show that they are benefitting the other persons but in reality, they destroy them. The rich people and
politicians are described as greedy good-doers and beneficent beasts because they show that they are
helping the poor shed owners but in reality, nothing like that is done. Actually, they are encircling their
lives and forcefully giving them such benefits which have been well planned and will put these poor
people in a confusion. These people cannot decide what is good for them and what is harmful.
These selfish people tell to the poor that now they can relax but in reality, they themselves sleep all day
long. Also, they destroy their sleep at night too as has been happening since the past.

Sometimes I feel myself ……………………………. and turn around;

The poet says that this kiddish desire in the hearts of these shed owners is useless. He cannot tolerate their
sadness which they go through when they open the window of the shed, waiting for a car to stop and buy
something. They wait there the whole day and it seems that they are doing a prayer seeking a buyer for
their goods. They pray for the vehicles to step on the brakes and want to hear a car stop by. There are
many cars carrying selfish people but hopefully, some may stop by just to ask the prices of the produce
grown by the farmers there. One car did stop there but just to disturb the grass when they back their car
and turn around.
And another to ……………………my pain.
Some cars stop by to buy fuel for their cars. Poet gets annoyed and says that do they not have any idea that
these poor people cannot afford to sell fuel. He adds that the kind of work these villagers do and the kind
of things they sell, it cannot lead to the required upliftment. The resources are too less to help them get rid
of their problem. Their situation demands such a solution which would be a relief to put them out of their
problems in one go. The next day, the poet thinks that when he is realistic then he expects the rich to visit
and help them get rid of their problem in one go, perhaps with death.

Figures of Speech
Transferred Epithet: (a) Polished traffic (b) Selfish cars
Personification: 1) A roadside stand that too pathetically pled
 GDGKKD/XII/ROADSIDE STAND HANDOUT/XII/2024-25
Selfish cars
Sadness that lurks near the open window
Metaphor: Roadside Stand (for economic challenges)
Dole of bread : charity
The flower of cities (refers to the rich)
Childish longing : (refers to the aspirations of village folk/economically deprived people)
Trusting Sorrow (trust the poor people have placed upon the rich which gives nothing but sorrow)
Repetition: N turned wrong and S turned wrong
Anaphora: or….or…
Squeal of brakes: Onomatopoeia
Imagery: The little house…
landscape marred with artless paint
crooked -necked golden squash with silver warts
Symbolism: live of the moving pictures (false hope )
Oxymoron & Alliteration: ‘Greedy good-doers’ and ‘beneficent beasts’ of prey.
Alliteration: gallon of gas

Question and Answers

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?
The lines that indicate this are as follows-
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
They complained about the shabby paint on the walls of these sheds that has spoiled the beauty of the
landscape.

2.What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
. They pled for flow of cash from the pockets of the city dwellers into their hands so that they can also
make good use of the money. They want to feel the money on their hands..
3.What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Ans. The desire of the shed owner that some cars will stop by to buy something or at least to enquire the
prices of the farmer’s produce is the childish longing. It is vain or futile because no car stops by. They
wait with windows open and pray all day but the effort is wasted.
4.Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the
rural poor?
These lines indicate the poet’s feeling-
I can’t help owning the great relief it would be
To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.
5.Why do the people who run the roadside stand wait for the squeal of brakes so eagerly?
The “squealing of brakes” means that a car has stopped at their roadside stand. It
raises their hopes that the city-folk have stopped there to buy something from their roadside stand and
some city money will come into their hands.
6.Explain: “soothe them out of them wits” with reference to the poem The Roadside Stand’
The powerful men approach the country folk with false promises of providing them with better living
conditions and a better life. These innocent and simple rustics repose blind faith in their false claims and
feel soothed and satisfied. They fail to see through their crookedness and selfishness.
7.Why does Robert Frost sympathise with the rural poor?
Robert Frost feels an unbearable agony at the plight of the rural poor who are ignored and neglected by the
rich politicians. The Government and the party in power are indifferent to their welfare. They fool them by
making false promises and then fully exploit them to suit their own selfish interests.
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8.Why didn’t the ‘polished traffic’ stop at the roadside stand?

The ‘polished traffic’ conveniently overlooks the roadside stand and do not stop there as their mind is
focussed only on their destination. Moreover, they were critical of the poor decor of the stand, its artless
interior and paint.

9.What news in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ is making its round in the village?
The news making its round is about the resettlement of the poor, rural people who will be resettled in the
villages, next to the theatre and the store. They would be close to the cities and will not have to worry
about themselves any more.

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

The rural people running the roadside stand are poor and deprived, unlike the people of the city. They thus
ask for city money so that they too can lead a life of happiness and prosperity. This much-needed city
money can give them the life that had been promised to them by the party in power.

11.What does Frost himself feel about the roadside stand?

The poet is distressed to see the interminable wait on the part of the shed owners for their prospective
buyers. He is agonised at the ‘childish longing in vain’ of the people who have put up the roadside stand.

Long Answer Question: (120-150 words)

1. A Roadside Stand is a social satire depicting the two contrasting worlds existing in society. Justify
this statement with reference to the poem.

Ans: 'A Roadside Stand' by Robert Frost is indeed a social satire that portrays the two contrasting worlds
that exist in society. The poem is set in a rural countryside, where there is a roadside stand selling fruits
and vegetables. The poem describes the two types of people who stop at the stand: the wealthy and the
poor. The wealthy people who stop at the stand are superficial, materialistic and self-absorbed, drive
expensive cars, wear fancy clothes, and have an air of superiority about them. They come by the stand, but
don't buy anything, perhaps it is not up to their status and lifestyle.
On the contrary, the poor village folks, who set up these stands, appeal to the city folks who drive past to
consider buying their wares, so as to alleviate them from their poverty- stricken lives. The poet highlights
the contrast between the wealthy and the poor, and the social and economic superiority about them. They
come by the stand, but don't buy anything. Perhaps it is not up to their status and lifestyle. On the contrary,
the poor village folks, who set up these stands, appeal to the city folks who drive past to consider buying
their wares, so as to alleviate them from their poverty- stricken lives. The poet highlights the contrast
between the wealthy and the poor, and the social and economic inequalities that exist in society. He is
critical of the materialistic values that dominate modern society and hopes for a change in this attitude
among the people.