A Roadside Stand
Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime and is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont.
Summary:
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.
Explanation
The poem starts with the description of the stand. A small-time farmer has put up the stand outside his house along a highway hoping that the passing cars would buy his goodies. He is trying to earn some money not by begging and supporting cities from going into ruins.
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,
Explanation:
Unfortunately, no passer-by stops their cars and buys his goodies. Moreover, even if someone stares in the direction of the stand only criticizes the badly painted North-South signs without even once noticing the wild berries and squash for sale.
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.
Explanation:
The farmer tells the rich to keep their money if they are meant to be so cruel and mean. He is not hurt that they do not notice the stand but he is hurt at the way he is treated and ignored. He wishes for some city life and money which he has seen in movies and other media but the political parties are denying him all these plush life.
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.
Explanation:
The poet here says that there are some benefactors(good doers) of these poor people too. They relocate them to such places where they can experience the cinema and the store. However, Frost says that these benefactors are selfish as they help these pitiful kin for their own advantage. These benefactors make the villagers completely dependent on them thus robbing them of their ability to think for themselves or be independent. During the ancient times, these villagers used to work day and night. This process has been changed by these greedy good doers who manipulate these innocent villagers and ask them not to use their own ideas. These villagers are now troubled and unable to sleep at night because they haven’t worked in the morning.
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?
Explanation:
In the following lines, Frost talks about his own personal feelings. He is intolerable towards the farmer’s battered hopes. The windows of the farmer’s house just ache to hear the sound of a car stopping to make some purchase. However, they are always disappointed as the cars stop either to enquire about the police or about the gas stations.
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.
Explanation:
The poet regrets that the yardstick of gain vested in money, isn’t found in the country-side at all. Money he feels elevates spirits and the lack of it dampens the villagers’ perspective towards life. They tend to express their grievance about a life bereft of money. At this point of time, the poet is overwhelmed with emotions and contemplates their pain at one go by changing their lives. But a later logical thought and a poised state of mind tells him the futility of this rash act. It might compel him to seek purgation of pain from others for his thoughtless decision.
