NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Poem 4 “A Roadside Stand” provide precise, well-structured, and easy-to-understand answers to all textbook “Think it out” questions. This complete study guide explores Robert Frost’s moving critique of rural poverty, urban indifference, and the hypocrisy of false social reform, along with its key poetic devices and themes. Be sure to read the A Roadside Stand Summary first to grasp the background of the poem and answer these questions more effectively!
A Roadside Stand Class 12 Questions and Answers
Think it out (page 97)
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?
Ans. Lines:
- “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…”
Complaint: The city travellers were in a hurry and ignored the stand. If they noticed it at all, they were irritated because the crudely painted signs (with the letters N and S written the wrong way round) spoiled the beauty of the landscape. They cared more about scenery than about the poor people who put up the stand.
Q.2. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Ans. They were not begging for “a dole of bread”, meaning charity. Their plea was for some of the city money, the cash whose flow keeps the “flower of cities” from sinking and withering. They wanted the travellers to stop, buy their berries, squash and other produce, and give them some of that money. They hoped that city money would make their lives “expand” and give them the better life promised by the “moving pictures”, which they felt was being kept from them.
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 that the poet uses to show their double standards.
Ans.
- “Greedy good-doers”
- “Beneficent beasts of prey”
- “Mercifully gathered in” (the poor are to be bought out and moved to villages)
- “Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore”
- “Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits”
- “Benefits that are calculated to soothe them out of their wits”
- “By teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day, / Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way”
These phrases are contradictions (greedy and good, beneficent and beasts of prey). They show that the helpers look kind but really exploit the poor, take away their independence and dull their minds.
Q.4. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Ans. The childish longing is the simple, innocent hope of the rural poor that some passing car will stop and a traveller will buy their produce or at least ask the price. They wait all day, “in almost open prayer”, for the squeal of brakes. It is “vain” because it is not fulfilled: the thousand selfish cars pass by. The few that do stop do not come to buy. One only plows up the grass while turning around, another asks the way, and another asks for a gallon of gas, which they do not have. Their hopes are never met.
Q.5. Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?
Ans.
- “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”
- “I can’t help owning the great relief it would be / To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.”
The poet’s pain is so great that he even thinks that it would be a relief to end their suffering at one stroke. The next day, when he “comes back into the sane”, he realises how he would feel if someone offered to put him “gently out of my pain”.
Talk about it
(Group discussion, so here are points you can use.)
The economic well-being of a country depends on a balanced development of the villages and the cities.
- Villages produce food, raw materials and labour, and cities provide markets, industry, jobs and services. Each depends on the other.
- If only cities develop, villagers become poor and move to cities, which leads to overcrowding, slums and unemployment. This is the situation in the poem, where the country people are left deprived while the city prospers.
- Balanced development needs good roads, schools, hospitals, electricity, fair prices for farmers and rural industries, so that villagers earn a decent living where they are.
- A country is strong only when all its parts are prosperous. Real progress should include the poor and should not treat them with pity or exploitation.
Try this out
Stop at a dhaba or roadside eatery on the outskirts of your town or city and observe:
Sample report:
I stopped at a dhaba on the highway near my town one Sunday evening. (1) About twenty vehicles stopped in an hour, mostly truck drivers and families travelling by car, who came to eat. (2) A few stopped to ask the way, to use the washroom, to buy water or tea, or to repair a puncture. (3) The shopkeepers were often treated with little respect. Customers shouted orders, haggled over prices, and some left without saying thanks. (4) The dhaba sold tea, parathas, dal and rice, and cold drinks, and the owner’s family also sold snacks and cigarettes. (5) They worked from early morning until midnight, and lived in a small room behind the shop. Their income depended on the traffic, and was uncertain. I felt that their lives were hard, like those of the people in Frost’s poem.
(Write what you actually observe.)
Poem Summary
In A Roadside Stand, Robert Frost describes a small, poor farmer’s family that has set up a little new shed in front of their old house by the side of a busy road. They put up a stand to sell wild berries, golden squash and other farm produce. Their request is “pathetic”, but they are not asking for charity (“a dole of bread”). They want a share of the city money which keeps the cities prosperous.
The city travellers, in their polished cars, rush past with their minds elsewhere. If they do notice the stand, they are annoyed because the crude hand-painted signs spoil the beautiful scenery. The poet says that his complaint is not about the damage to the scenery but about the “trusting sorrow of what is unsaid”, the silent hope of the country people that city money might bring them a better life, like the one promised in the movies, which the ruling party is said to be keeping from them.
The poet then criticises the government and the so-called social reformers. It is in the news that these poor people will be bought out and “mercifully” shifted to villages near theatres and stores, where they will no longer have to think for themselves. The “greedy good-doers”, who are like beasts of prey, will swarm over their lives and impose benefits which will only dull their minds and destroy their natural way of life.
The poet says that he finds the thought of the people’s childish, vain longing unbearable. They wait all day near the open window, as in prayer, for a car to stop and ask the price of their goods. But the cars that stop only plow up their grass while turning around, or ask for directions, or ask for petrol that they do not have. The country people feel that the country’s way of earning has never given them the lift of spirit they need. In his sorrow, the poet feels that the best relief would be to end their pain at one stroke. But the next day, when he is sane again, he wonders how he would feel if someone offered to put him gently out of his pain. This shows the depth of his sympathy and the horror of the idea.
Key points to remember:
- Theme: The plight of the poor, neglected rural people, and the indifference and hypocrisy of the rich city folk, the government and social agencies.
- Central idea: Rural poverty and the gap between the city and the country. The poor need respect, fair opportunities and income, not pity or false help.
- Message: Society must not ignore or exploit the poor. Real help means giving them dignity and a chance to earn, and not taking away their independence.
- Contrast: City (polished traffic, money, selfishness) versus country (poverty, patience, hope); real help versus the pretended help of “greedy good-doers”.
- Irony: “Greedy good-doers” and “beneficent beasts of prey” are contradictions. “Mercifully gathered in” is ironic. The “help” actually destroys the poor.
- Tone: Sad, sympathetic, bitter and ironical. It becomes tragic at the end.
- Symbols and images:
- Roadside stand: the poor people’s silent plea for a share of prosperity.
- Cars (selfish, polished traffic): the indifferent, self-centred city world.
- Open window: the unfulfilled hope of the poor.
- N and S turned wrong: the poor people’s lack of education.
- Plowed-up grass: the damage the careless rich cause to the poor.
- Structure: The poem is in free-flowing verse with an irregular rhyme scheme and stanza lengths, which suggests that thought and feeling are more important than a fixed sound pattern. Each stanza moves to a new idea: the stand and the travellers, the plan to help the poor, the vain waiting, and the poet’s pain.
- Poetic devices: Irony, oxymoron (“greedy good-doers”, “beneficent beasts of prey”), metaphor (“flower of cities”), personification (“sadness that lurks”), imagery, enjambment and repetition (“this crossly”).
- Word meanings: Quarts = bottles or containers. Squash = a kind of vegetable (gourd). Dole = charity or free food. Pled = pleaded. Kin = people of one’s own kind.
