The central theme of the poem
The Roadside Stand deals primarily with the socio-economic conditions of the poor and the deprived. Robert Frost draws the attention of the reader towards the disparity in the allocation of financial resources to urban areas as opposed to the countryside. People living in cities receive more resources and better opportunities than their counterparts in the countryside. The poem also highlights the apathy and insensitivity of affluent city dwellers who pass by in polished cars and also politicians who break their promises.
Tone
The poem starts with a tone of sadness, grief and a sense of helplessness. There is a tone of complaint till three-fourths of the poem when suddenly the poet voices his frustration at the helplessness of the situation and then states how it would be a "great relief...to put these people at one stroke out of their pain." It is as if out of a sense of frustration, Robert Frost suggests that the only solution would be to put them out of their misery by shooting them or even exterminating them, though in the line he retracts from this rather harsh statement by stating that "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." Detached, clinical clarity in his descriptions of the human situation.
Symbols
1. Roadside Stand: It is a symbol of the pathetic condition of the people living in the countryside.
2. Polished Traffic: It symbolises the more affluent people of the city passing by.
3. Theatre and Store: They both symbolise vices and a culture that is hollow, addictive and meant to befuddle and divert the attention of the youth from their actual socio-economic condition.
4. Flower of cities: The city that has been pampered and supported with surplus cash.
Figures of Speech
1. Personification: The polished passed with a mind ahead
2. Transferred Epithet: trusting sorrow
3. Transferred Epithet, Oxymoron, Antithesis: greedy good doers & beneficient beasts of prey
4. Oxymoron: greedy good-doers, beneficient beasts of prey
5. Irony: moving picture's promise
A Summary of the Poem
1. The first six lines of the poem describe a little house by the highway which is attached to a new shed meant for selling things. Unfortunately, the shed appears to be shabby and rather pathetic for want of funds. The poet's accusation is that the cash that supports the cities from withering hasn't found its way here!
2. The next six lines describe how rich people who pass by in their expensive cars don't even acknowledge the presence of the shed. If at all they do look at the shed, it is because of the signboard on which the letters 'N' and 'S' have been turned wrong, which has spoiled the landscape! The items for sale at the roadside stand include wild berries, golden squash, and pictures of mountain scenes.
3. The third set of six lines describes a complaint about how insensitive the city people who pass by are. Their complaint of the spoilt scenery caused by the wrongly turned letters 'N' and 'S' is lesser than the sorrow of the people running the roadside stand.
4. The fourth set of six lines describes how badly the people running the roadside stand want to feel the touch of some money in their hands. They want to prosper and they want to realise the dreams, the promises that the party in power made to them about a better life. Alas! The party in power has forgotten the promises that it made to the people living in the countryside. Moreover, it is in the news that the poor people living in the countryside will be relocated to other villages with amenities like theatres and stores.
5. The fifth set of six lines rather clinically describes how hollow this effort for relocating the poor people is. It is ironic that the people are being deliberately exposed to vices and habits that would dull their minds to reality, thus ignoring the acts of omission and neglect by the party in power. The party in power is enforcing benefits that are meant to blind the people to the gross neglect committed by the party in power. The party in power destroys the lives of the poor people by making them stay awake the whole night (probably drinking and partying) so that they sleep the whole day!
6. The sixth set of six lines describes how anguished the poet feels when he looks at the hopeless, childish longings of the owners of the roadside stall who wait by the window for at least one customer to turn up at the shed to buy something.
7. The seventh set of six lines describes the cars that do stop. Alas! Their hopes are dashed when the drivers of the cars that stop, stop to ask directions or to take a U-turn. Others stop to ask about real-estate prices, or perhaps even ask for a gallon of petrol!
8. The last eight lines of the poem describe how badly the poet feels about the whole situation. Unfortunately, no one really knows the exact amount of money required to enjoy happiness in life. Frustrated and angry about how people in power have neglected these people, the poet wonders if it would not be a relief to kill all of the poor people, to end their misery once and for all! But then the next moment he remonstrates with himself and rationalises how he himself would feel if someone, the reader, offered the same solution to the poet, put the poet's mind to rest in the same manner!
Note: it is clear that the poet expresses his disappointment about how the poor people have been treated by a government that has done nothing to address their poverty. The poet analyses the whole situation in a very clinical and detached manner throughout most of the poem. It is only in the last eight lines that he expresses his true feelings of frustration and helplessness, that nothing much can be done for the poor people.
https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.com/2019/04/a-roadside-stand-reference-to-context.html
1. Lines 1 to 6
"The little...faint."
1. In the Countryside, by the highway.
2. Money, buyers, cash
3. Metaphor
4. How is the flower of cities prevented from fainting?
2. Lines 7 to 12
The polished traffic...silver warts"
1. It represents rich people from the cities driving by. Polished is a transferred epithet. Polished traffic is also a personification of the cars.
2. Indifferent, dispassionate, blind.
3. The letters N and S turned the wrong way.
4. The list includes wild berries in wooden quarts,
containers of golden squash and paintings or pictures of mountain scenes.
Lines 13 to 18
3. "Or Beauty...stand."
1. The pictures with mountain scenery.
2. "You" refers to the rich people from the cities who drive by. "You" are mean because they don't want to buy anything from the roadside stand. They don't want to spend any money on the people who need the money most.
3. The complaint of the owners of the roadside stand is greater than the complaint of the marred landscape because their need is greater than the need for a better landscape.
4. "Trusting sorrow" is an antithesis because 'trust' conflicts with sorrow. It highlights the precarious situation of the people in the countryside. They have been betrayed by the Government, the people in power. They are filled with sorrow on being betrayed, and yet they have a lingering level of trust in the government in power.
4. Lines 19 to 24
"And ask...gathered in".
1. They long for someone to look at them, sympathise with them, someone to buy things from them.
2. The expression "our being expand" refers their desire for prosperity, progress and growth.
3. The "moving-pictures' promise" is a promise of a movie kind of life, a good life, the life of pictures, the promise of a good life, good days to come.
4. Ironically, the party in power is "keeping from us", the promises of a moving pictures life that they had made to them earlier, probably before the elections. The word, "us" refers to the people living in the countryside, people running the roadside stand.
5. What is in the "news" is that poor people will be relocated to other towns.
6. The word, "mercifully gathered" is ironical because there is really nothing "merciful" in the intentions of the Government or the people in power. It is as if they are being gathered so that they can be slaughtered, or even silenced forever!
5. Lines 25 to 31
To live in...ancient way."
1. They will be provided with a theatre and a store. The theatre and the store will not help them because they will expose them to vices, they will push the people further into poverty since you need money to buy things from the store, moreover, no one would allow you to enter the theatre unless you bought the ticket.
2. The things provided by the store and the entertainment provided by the theatre would only dull their minds to reality. Their attention would be diverted from their poverty and how neglected they are. They would be exposed to the vices of the good life.
3. Greedy good doers-alliteration of the letter 'G',
beneficient beasts of prey-alliteration of the letter 'b',
Greedy good doers-Oxymoron,
beneficient beasts-Oxymoron.
4. The words"enforcing benefits" indicate forced benefits that are an eye-wash. They appear to be benefits but are in fact detrimental towards the well being of the people running the roadside stand.
5. The phrase, "calculated to soothe them out of their wits" suggest an ulterior calculation meant to confuse the poor people. They are to be exposed to a regimen that is intended to expose them to something akin to mass amnesia or mass forgetfulness.
6. The politicians "Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way" by exposing them to the culture of nightlife, late-night parties, binge drinking, and perhaps even lat- night shifts, graveyard shifts. The "ancient way" refers to the ancient way of life. Nights are for sleeping and days are for wakefulness.
6. Lines 32 to 37
1. He can "hardly bear" to think how naive and innocent the people running the roadside stand are to think someone will visit them and buy things from them.
2. The "childish longing" refers to the innocent beliefs of people of the roadside who believe that people will buy stuff from them.
3. The figure of speech is the personification of the emotion of sadness.
4. Their "open prayer" is for someone to stop and buy stuff from them.
5. The cars are "selfish" because they don't stop to buy things from them. They don't even notice how miserable they are.
7. Lines 38 to 43
"And one did stoop...see?"
1. The first one stopped to ask the farmer's prices of vegetable and fruits.
2. The figure of speech is personification.
3. It had almost run out of fuel.
4. The people in the cars "didn't see" the plight of the people running the roadside stand. They ignored the plight of the poor.
8. Lines 44 to 51
"No, in country...my pain."
1. In the line, "No, in country money, the country scale of gain, the requisite lift of spirit has never been found" Robert Frost refers to the ambiguity of knowing the exact figure or amount of money, income required to make one happy.
2. The "voice of the country" seems to "complain" about being neglected by the government, being victims of broken promises, of being passed over for people living in the cities. The nature of the complaint is in the form of a silent protest.
3. The poet feels upset, disappointed, disillusioned grief-stricken.
4. It would be a "great relief" for the poet to be rid of the problem of economic disparity even if it meant silencing the poor people once and for all.
5. The poet has a change of heart because he himself wouldn't like to be put out of his trouble by being shot!
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