The Patriot
Robert Browning
The Patriot
Robert Browning
Stanza 1
It was roses, and roses all the way
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.
a.
Where was the patriot being carried and why/? Where was he at present ?
In which mood was he seen?
b.
When did the patriot flourish as a popular and favourtie leader? What
happened with the patriot when he returned home as a victor?
c.
What kind of enthusiasm did the people show on his arriving home? What
kind of person was the patriot for his people?
d.
What kind of image does the line” The house-tops seemed to leave and
sway’ create? What significance does the line’ A year ago on this very day’ hold
in contrast of the poem?
e.
What do the words ‘Rose’ and path symbolise? Give the example of the
visual image in the above extract?
f.
Which figure of speech has been used in the following line: ‘The house
roofs seemed to heave and sway? Explain it clearly.
Stanza 2
The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, “Good folk, mere noise repels —
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”
a.
Whose fate does the poet refer
in the poem? When was the patriot given a warm welcome and why?
b.
In what state was the patriot seen in present time? What does he recall?
c.
How do we come to know that the people were mad after him? Explain the
following: ‘The air broke into a mist with bells.’
d.
Explain the following lines:
‘but give me your sun from yonder skies
They had answered, “And what else?”
e.
What brought about the change in patriot’s life? For what do the words ‘sun
from yonder skies’ stands?
f.
To whom does the patriot address as ‘Good folk”? Explain the words: ‘mere
noise repels.’ What do these words signify?
Stanza 3
Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun
To give it my loving friends to keep!
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.
a.
Who was patriot? How was he treated a year ago and after a year?
b.
Where was the patriot at present? In what mood was he seen? Why does he
regret?
c.
Which mythological allusion does the poet use in the line? ‘Alack it was
I who leaped at the sun? What moral does the poet bring to us through this
allusion.?
d.
What happened a year ago? For what does the word ‘harvest’ stand?
e.
In which line has the poet used figure of speech metaphor? explain it
clearly.
f.
Why was the patriot sentenced to
death? To whom does he call’ loving friends’ and what does it signify?
g.
What does the speaker mean when
he says, ‘Nought man could do; have I felt undone’?
h.
What does the following line “this very day, now a year is run’, show?
Stanza 4
There’s nobody on the house-tops now—
Just a palsied few at the window set
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the shambles’ gate— or, better yet
By the scaffold’s very foot, I trow.
Stanza 5
I go in the rain,
and, more than needs,
A rope cuts my wrists
behind;
And I think, by the
feel, of my forehead bleeds
For they fling,
whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my
year’s misdeeds.
Stanza
6
Thus
I entered, and thus I go!
In triumphs, people have dropped down
dead.
“Paid
by the world, what dost thou owe
Me?”—God
might question; now instead,
’Tis
God shall repay: I am safer so.
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