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THE PATRIOT
The Patriot: About the poem

The Patriot is a dramatic monologue written by the
renowned English poet and playwright Robert Browning.
He is well known for his dramatic monologues and is
widely celebrated as one of the foremost poets of the
Victorian era. In this poem, Browning talks about Politics,
Patriotism, Religious faith, and the harsh reality of the
leaders who are true to their sense of patriotism. It speaks
about the sacrifice of such leaders who are misunderstood
by the people.
The speaker of the poem is a patriot. The poem is a
monologue of this ‘patriot speaker’ who narrates his tale
to us as he has been taken to the scaffold to be executed
publicly for his ‘misdeeds’. He tells us of his situation:
how he was once well loved by everyone, and how he is
now despised by the same people. The patriot is innocent
of having done any misdeeds, and it is only out of the
misunderstanding of the people that he is being put to
death. His death sentence is for the wrong reason, and
although he’s tried to persuade the people to listen to him,
it has done him no good.
‘The Patriot’ is a harsh critique on public sentiment and
morality. It stresses on the point that not all decisions
made or supported by the people are the right decisions,
or even in their own interest. The poem has a sense
of universality to it as history has witnessed the rise and
fall of many such ‘patriots’ throughout its course — a
grim reminder that life is uncertain!.
Form and structure of the poem

The Patriot has a curious structure of six stanzas of five
lines each. A quick scansion reveals that the poem in not
based on a strict metre. The length of a majority of lines is
nine syllables, with a few going a syllable or two beyond
that mark. Instead of the metre the musical quality is
achieved by the careful placement of words.
The poem has a clear rhyme scheme of ababa which is
carried and maintained throughout all the stanzas of the
poem. As with any good poem with a definitive rhyme,
this one too seems to have made a prodigal use of
assonance and consonance.
In the first two stanzas the poem introduces the conditions
of the past. The third stanza is the poet’s revelation on
how and why the conditions changed, and that too against
him. The fourth and the fifth stanza contrasts the past with
the present. The last stanza is the poet’s acceptance of his
condition and an expression of his hope. It can be seen
that the poem follows an orderly sequence of a story
where the conditions of the past are told, the impetus for
the change is discussed, the present state is shown and a
final conclusion is drawn on all things as a whole. This
makes the sub-title of the poem ‘An old story’ all the
more relevant.
The Patriot: Stanza wise Explanation
First Stanza
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.
The poem starts with the patriot describing an event – a

grand public welcome – that took place a year ago on that
very same day. He is reminiscing the past, and he builds a
picture for us as he remembers that day. His walking path
was covered with lots and lots of rose petals, with myrtle
mixed in them. The path was festooned with these flower
for him.
People standing on the roofs of their houses cheered for
him as he passed by. They were overjoyed to see him.
The spires of the church – pointed tapering roofs we
generally see on old cathedrals and similar buildings –
were covered with flaming flags that the people had put
up for a celebration. People were overwhelmingly
delighted to greet their hero and were enthusiastic to see
him as he passed by.
It is only logical to assume that this grand celebration
must be as a result of some achievement on the speaker’s
part. Perhaps it was a victory in war or the assemblage for
fighting one, or winning a popular election to an office, or
being nominated as a ruler, or maybe something else. It
can be assumed at this point in the poem that it concerned
the common people highly, and they were happy on the
occasion. The patriot is seen as a public hero in this stanza
who is greeted with much love and affection by the
commoners.
Second Stanza:
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?”
In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker continues

narrating the old story from the same day a year ago. He
describes the event to the readers. People were rejoicing
by ringing bells and the entire atmosphere was thick with
its noise. They were standing on some kind of old
structure and cheering for the patriot with their cries
rocking the walls.
Now the patriot says, had he asked the public for anything
– even the dearest things on which their sustenance
depends – they would have readily given it to him; such
great was his image. They would then ask him what else
he wanted.
We can see the exuberance of the people at the sight of
the. The poet is trying to establish the kind of popularity
the speaker had through this stanza.
Third Stanza:
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.
The third stanza of the poem is the speaker’s discourse on

what all he did for his country. It begins with the poet
giving a subtle reference to the old Greek mythological
tale of Icarus and Daedalus. Icarus was the son of the
great Inventor Daedalus and the story revolves around the
escape of these two men from a high tower where they
were held prisoners by making wings out of bird feathers
and wax. Icarus, taken aback with the ability of flight,
flies too close to the sun, which causes the wax in his
wings melt and his eventual fall which kills him.
Just like Icarus, the speaker admits that he too was overly
ambitious and ‘leaped at the sun’. Giving the sun his
“loving friends to keep” may suggest that his actions
somehow caused the death of his close friends. Here
again, we can hypothesize that the patriot is talking about
some battle that claimed the lives of his dear ones.
He did everything a man could have done to make things
right. Despite this he is facing his undeserved end. He
calls to attention the miserable state he is in. The terms
‘harvest’ and ‘reap’ are closely seen as common
metaphors for karma, and the poet uses this to convey that
what he is facing is not what he truly deserves. He says it
has been a year since that day. Here, the poet ends the
speaker’s flashback.
Stanza Four:
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.
The speaker returns to the present and talks about what he
sees. He describes the present setting and in a way
contrasts it with the one on the same day a year ago. Now
he has been convicted and is being led to the gallows to
be put to death.
As opposed to the setting in the first stanza, now the place
is all empty. Now there’s nobody on the roof-tops
cheering him. Only old men who are taken down by palsy
(a disease) and unable to cross the threshold of their
houses are watching the patriot as he marches towards his
death.
The reason why no one is there to see the speaker is
because people have gathered at the Shambles’ gate, the
gate of the gallows, to see him die. The people want to be
where the action is. The speaker further makes the heart-
touching comment that the best sight is at the gate of the
slaughterhouse, or at the very foot of the scaffold.
Stanza Five:
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.
The fifth stanza is the continuation of the previous one
and further describes the speaker’s humiliation at the
hands of the people. The poet starts with filling up the
setting even more. It is raining as the speaker is walking
towards the scaffold. His hands are tied behind by a tight
rope – so tight that it cuts his wrists. He has now arrived
closer to the ‘Shambles’ Gate’ where all the people are
gathered. The patriot is in his own mind, knowing the
steadfast certainty of death ahead of him.
As he is walking, he thinks he is bleeding from his
forehead. He can only feel the trickling of blood. People
throwing stones at him are causing the injuries. So stones
have replaced the petals of roses! He says that the people
who are throwing stones are the ones who have an active
mind, and are aware of his ‘misdeeds’. The speaker
doesn’t seem to be angry with these people for throwing
stones at him. It suggests, that despite the treatment he is
receiving, he doesn’t blame the people; he knows that
they have misunderstood him.
Stanza Six:
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.
The last stanza of the poem reflects on the patriot’s death.
It is full of philosophical and religious ideas. “Thus I
entered and thus I go” – his entry and exit from life,
position and people’s minds in the presence of so many
others – sums up the speaker’s life well.
He says that in (his) triumphs, people have dropped (him)
down dead. This suggests that he looks at his predicament
as a triumph. He believes that he stood by the right things
and thus considers himself victorious in defeat.
The final three lines of the stanza deal with the ideas of
the speaker. Yet again we see Browning’s stout religious
belief. He believes that god might say “Your sins were
already washed away when you died. The people sought
to it. They punished you; what now do you expect from
me? You are now free of all corruption”. Thus, the patriot
thinks that the punishment he got in the mortal world has
purged him, and that he hopes to go to heaven instead of
hell. He feels safer knowing that god knows he stood for
what he thought was right and thus he will be safe under
him.
As a conclusive note, we must remember that it is not
possible to establish the gullibility or innocence of the
patriot in the poem. On one hand we see the speaker
himself admitting that he did some misdeeds, whilst on the
other hand we see him as a patriot who is mistaken — at
least the title suggests that. It might be so that he is guilty
of some things he did which he thought were right. It
might even be so that he is truly innocent and is simply
put to death because the people wish so.
However, the poem ends on a note of optimism with
Browning’s own philosophy “God’s in His Heaven, and
all’s Right with the World”. The ‘Patriot’ believes that it
is God who will reward him according to his true merit.
On the closing tone, this poem resembles Browning’s
another poem, The Last Ride Together.

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THE PATRIOT

The Patriot: About the poem

Form and structure of the poem

The Patriot: Stanza wise Explanation

The poem starts with the patriot describing an event – a

In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker continues

The third stanza of the poem is the speaker’s discourse on

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