Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
There’s nobody on the house-tops now …..
Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles’ Gate …… or, better yet,
By the very scaffold’s foot, I trow.
– The Patriot, Robert Browning
(i) Who is the speaker ? Where is he being taken ? Why ?
(ii) Describe the scene when he had walked down the same street a year ago.
(iii) Where does the speaker think all the people had gathered that day ?
Why does he think so ?
(iv) Describe the speaker’s physical condition.
(v) What is the central message of the poem ?
Does the poem end on a note of hope or despair ?
Give one reason for your answer.