Summary
Lines 1-6: 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.
Lines 7-13: Unfortunately, no passer-by stop their cars and
buys his goodies. Moreover, even if someone stares at the direction of the
stand only criticize the badly painted North-South signs without even once
noticing the wild
berries and squash for sale.
Lines 14-22: 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.
Lines 23-31: 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.
Lines
33-43: 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.
Lines
44-51: Robert Frost feels that these villagers should be put out of pain
and hardships of existence. According to the poet, these country people have
not yet found progress which is evidently visible through their lifestyle. He
wonders for some solution by which the farmers can be freed from such painful
existence.
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