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A Roadside Stand NCERT Textbook With Solutions Book PDF Free Download
Chapter 5: A Roadside Stand
Robert Frost (1874-1963) is a highly acclaimed American poet of the twentieth century. Robert Frost wrote about characters, people, and landscapes.
His poems are concerned with human tragedies and fears, his reaction to the complexities of life, and his ultimate acceptance of his burdens.
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, Birches, and Mending walls are a few of his well-known poems.
In the poem A Roadside Stand, Frost presents the lives of poor deprived people with pitiless clarity and with the deepest sympathy and humanity.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
| Author | NCERT |
| Language | English |
| No. of Pages | 3 |
| PDF Size | 0.3 MB |
| Category | English |
| Source/Credits | ncert.nic.in |
NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Chapter 5 A Roadside Stand
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?
Answer:
“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”
According to the city folk, the stalls having inartistic signboards blemish the landscape with scenic beauty.
2. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Answer:
The rural folks pathetically pleaded for customers to stop and buy their goods. City folks passed by on this road and therefore the rural folks set up a stand on the roadside to grab their attention and sell the goods.
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 that the poet uses to show their double standards.
Answer:
The poet criticizes the government for the double standards and the social service agencies, which promise to improve the living standards of the farmers and guide them to the right side of life.
But when it comes to delivering the promise, they forget them or fulfill them by keeping in mind their own benefits.
The poet calls them as “beneficent beasts of prey” and “greedy good-doers”, who “swarm over their lives”.
The poet says that these people make well-thought-out and calculated shrewd moves, to which farmers who are unaware and innocent fall prey. These clever people rob off the peace of mind of these simple and humble farmers. The poet says,
“…… 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.”
4. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Answer:
According to Robert Frost, the people running the roadside stand suffer from ‘childish longing’. They always expect customers and wait for them.
Their windows are always kept open to attract them. When no one turns up, they become sad. They always wait to listen to the squeal of brakes and the sound of a car stopping but all their efforts go in vain.
5. Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?
Answer:
Being filled with empathy, the poet is not able to bear the plight of the innocent and unassuming rural people. The lines which tell us about the insufferable pain is:
“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”
NCERT Class 12 English Textbook Chapter 5 A Roadside Stand With Answer PDF Free Download