Question

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.

Read the above lines and amswer the question that follow.

Explain with reference to the context.

Answer 1

This is stanza has been taken from the poem Patriot into Traitor” written by Robert Browning.This poem is a criticism of politics and people’s opinion. When a leader comes into power, people call him a patriot. When he is dethroned, the same leader is considered a traitor. This is the tragedy of modem politics. The leader in this poem fell a victim to the same state of affairs. When he came into power, people showered flowers at him as a patriot. But after a year, they declared him a traitor,, when he was no more in power.
They took him to the gallows. But Browning has ended his poem not on a tragic, rather on a next world optimistic note.
In the given lines the poet, through the mouth of the deposed leader says that he was brought honorably to the chair and with great pomp and show but now he is being taken very insultingly to the gallows. He says sometimes great heroes fall from their climax and die. Such has not happened to him. Had he died in the peak of his power, he would have been happy. Further the leader ridiculously says that heroes can not expect reward from God in the next world because they get their reward in this world. In his case people have not done him justice. They have killed him. He says after death he will go to his Lord Creator where God Might question him about his deeds he had done for the people. He would reply that he had done his best for them but they rewarded him with shame. Now he will ask God for a reward because God is just and He would give him the best reward – in the other world for his service to his people. He would be safe with God in the work  here after.