A Roadside Stand (Robert Frost)

The lines are:

> “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”

These lines show that the city people hardly noticed the stand. If they did notice it, they were annoyed because the signs were wrongly painted and they thought the roadside stand spoiled the beauty of the landscape. Their complaint was about the poor, untidy-looking signs and the way the stand seemed to mar the scenery.

The plea of the people who had set up the roadside stand was for some city money. They wanted the urban people to stop there, buy their produce, and give them a chance to improve their lives.

The lines are:

> “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”

So, they were asking for a little money and the hope of a better life.

The poet uses words and phrases that show the hypocrisy of the government and social workers, such as:

- “mercifully gathered in”
- “greedy good-doers”
- “beneficent beasts of prey”
- “swarm over their lives enforcing benefits”
- “calculated to soothe them out of their wits”
- “teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day”
- “Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way”

These expressions show that the so-called helpers are not truly helping the poor. Instead, they are exploiting them or ruining their traditional way of life while pretending to be kind.

The “childish longing” refers to the poor villagers’ innocent hope that some passing car will stop at their roadside stand and buy something from them. They wait eagerly, almost in prayer, for a customer.

It is called vain because this hope is almost always disappointed. The cars usually pass by without stopping, or stop only for selfish reasons, so their expectation brings no real relief or profit.

The lines are:

> “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”

These lines show the poet’s deep pain and sympathy for the rural poor. He cannot bear their hopeless waiting and disappointment.