A Roadside Stand-Robert Frost-Questions-Answers

A Roadside Stand by Robert Frost

Short Answer-type Qs

Q1.  What does the roadside stand seem to plead?

Ans. It seems to plead that its owner is a poor person. He needs the support of the rich persons to change his lifestyle.

Q2. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it vain? Or Why does Robert Frost sympathise wih the rural people?

Ans. The owners of the roadside stands keep on hoping against hope that the rich would stop their cars and purchase something from them. The poet calls it their childish longing.

Q3. What news is talked about in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’?

Ans. The news is that the poor people would be shifted from their places. They would be provided houses in cities. Their poverty would finish (remain no more).

Q4. What do the people in the cars do if ever they look towards these roadside stands?

Ans. They feel irritated and utter some words in disgust. They do not like the way they have painted their house and how they have put signboards there. They think that the beauty of the place has been destroyed by them.

Q5.Why is it unfair to say that these people are begging for a ‘dole of bread?’
Ans. The owners of the roadside stand are not beggars. They wait for the customers to sell them their articles like vegetables, fruit and other eatables.

Q6.What is the flower of the cities? How?
Ans. Prosperity/growth is the flower of the cities. As the flower is the crowning glory of a plant, growth becomes the flower of a city.

Q7. What do you mean by ‘polished traffic?
Ans. Polished traffic stands for the flashy and expensive cars. The owners of the cars may seem to be polished in their behaviour. But they are insensitive to the poor and suffering people.

Q8. What are the usual complaints made by the city men when they stop at the roadside stand?
Ans. The rich people complain that the owners of the roadside stand have spoilt the beauty of the landscape. The letters on the boards are written wrongly and in a bad manner and the directions also shown in a wrong manner.

Q9. How did the poor people “mar” the landscape?
Ans. The poor people mar/ruin the beauty of the landscape by making their roadside stand in an unsystematic way. They have no aesthetic sense. They write words in wrong spellings. They paint the walls of the roadside stands artlessly.

Q10. What do the people at the roadside stand expect from the rich? What for?

Ans. The people at the roadside stand expect that the rich people should stop near their stands and purchase something from them. They do not expect any charity from them. 

 

 Stanzas: 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 city money, the cash, whose flow supports/The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.

Q1. Name the poem and its poet. Ans. The name/ title of the poem is ‘A Roadside Stand’ and its poet is Robert Frost.

Q2. Where was the ‘little old house’ situated?

Ans. It was situated at the edge of the road leading to the city.

Q3. What does the flow of cash support as has been said in the above lines?

Ans. It supports flowers and lawns of the cities.

Q4. What would not be fair as quoted in the above lines?

Ans. It would not be fair to think that the roadside stand was set up for begging ‘a dole of bread’ from the rich people.

Q5. What are the beauties of the cities?

Ans. The flowers in the houses, lawns, parks, etc. are the beauties of the cities.

Q6. What is the rhyme scheme in the above lines?  Ans. aaaabc

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 with S turned wrong and N turned wrong/ Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts,

Q1. Name the poem and its poet.  Ans. The name/ title of the poem is ‘A Roadside Stand’ and its poet is Robert Frost.

Q2. What do the polished traffic stand for/symbolise?  Ans. It stands for the polished cars.

Q3. How do the polished traffic pass?   Ans. It passes keeping destination in mind looking forward.   Q4.Wherefrom do the polished traffic pass?  Ans. It passes by the roadside stand.

Q5. What do the person who looked for a moment towards the stand think for a moment?

Ans. He would think that the beauty of the landscape has been damaged by the shed. The directions at the signboard have wrongly been pointed.

Q6. What has been painted artlessly?   Ans. The house has artlessly been painted.

Q7. What has been shown ‘S turned wrong and N turned wrong’?

Ans. The directions on the signboard have wrongly been shown.

Stanza3: The hurt to the scenery wouldn’t be my complaint
So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid: 

Q1. Whose complaint is about the ‘hurt of the scenery’?

Ans. It is the complaint made by the owners of the flashy cars.

Q2. What does the poet mean by ‘trusting sorrow’?

Ans. The poor people have full faith in the false promises made to them by the politicians. They continue waiting for their fulfilment and that causes sorrow in their minds.

Q3. What is ‘unsaid’ here in the poem?  Ans. The poor people’s trusting sorrow remains unsaid.  Q4. What is meant by ‘unsaid’?  Ans. It means unexplained.

 

 Stanza 3:

While greedy good doers, beneficent beasts of prey,/Swarm over their lives, enforcing benefits
That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits…

Q1. Who are the greedy good doers?  Ans. The people from business class and politicians are called the greedy good doers.  Q2. Why have they been called ‘greedy good doers’?

Ans. They are called so because they are making money out of their goodness shown to them.

Q3. What poetical device has been used in the phrase ‘‘greedy good doers’?  Ans. Paradox has been used here.  Q4. What does ‘beneficent beast of prey’ symbolise? Ans.It also  stands for the social workers and the politicians who pretend to  help the poor. But they make money by doing acts of charity and social work.