A Roadside Stand questions and answers: Ncert Solutions for Class 12 English flamingo Poem Chapter 4 A Roadside Stand
| Textbook | Ncert |
| Class | Class 12 |
| Subject | English flamingo Poem |
| Chapter | Chapter 4 |
| Chapter Name | A Roadside Stand ncert solutions |
| Category | Ncert Solutions |
| Medium | English |
Are you looking for Class 12 English flamingo Poem Chapter 4 A Roadside Stand question answer? Now you can download A Roadside Stand questions and answers pdf from here.
A Roadside Stand Before you read:
Question 1: Have you ever stopped at a roadside stand? What have you observed there?
Answer 1: The poet believes that when we encounter a beautiful thing, even for a small moment, the pleasure remains with us forever. It leaves a lasting impression that inspires us to live life with hope and optimism.
A Roadside Stand Before you read:
Question 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 1: “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 have awkward signboards that blemish the landscape blessed with scenic beauty.
Question 2: What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Answer 2: The folk who had put up the roadside stand pleaded to the city dwellers to stop and buy their wares so as to enable them to earn some extra money for a decent living. They wanted that the rich people who passed from there in their cars should stop there and buy some goods from them. The money that these folks would earn from the rich people would help them to lead a better life.
Question 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 3: The poet criticizes the double standards of the government and other social service agencies who promise to improve the standard of living of the poor farmers and show them the rosy side of life. Yet, when the time comes to deliver their promise, they either forget them or fulfill them keeping in view their own benefits. The poet calls them “greedy good-doers” and “beneficent beasts of prey”, who “swarm over their lives”.
The poet says that these greedy people make calculated and well thought-out shrewd moves, to which the innocent, unaware farmers fall prey. These humble and simple farmers are robbed of their peace of mind by these clever people. 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.”
Question 4: What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Answer 4: 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 stop, but all their efforts go in vain.
Question 5: Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?
Answer 5: The poet, packed with empathy, can’t bear the plight of the unassuming and innocent rural people. The lines underneath demonstrate his insufferable pain:
“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”