Robert Browning Group

Question:

hooker
hooker
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Can anyone write a broad summary of the poem, "The Patriot"?

make it broad

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Posted by hooker on Saturday July 4, 2009 at 6:20 AM and tagged with robert browning, summary, the patriot.

Answers:


  1. akannan Teacher
    Middle School

    eNotes Editor

    This poem can have several interpretations, but I think that a broad explanation of it circles around the fickle nature of the public.  The protagonist in the poem sacrificed for his nation. We can presume this this particular individual gave service to the nation.  Time has passed and the public has turned on the protagonist.  This has resulted in scorn and derision where there used to be praise and glory.  The idea is brought home in the opening line of the last stanza, "Thus I enter and thus I go."  The poem concludes with the idea that while the public might not be able to be consistent with its praise, the speaker knows that a higher force will be able to render an appropriate judgment.

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    Posted by akannan on Saturday July 4, 2009 at 9:28 AM