Reference to context

1.For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:

‘Tell them I came and no one answered,

That I kept my word.’

Silence search softly backward

‘Is there anybody there?’

He suddenly smooth on the door even louder.

a) Who do you think ‘them' refers to in line 1?

b) What was the word that he has kept?

c) Is there a suggestion of impatience on the part of the traveller? What gives you this

impression?

d) The poem is set in the medieval times. Pick out a word and a description that tells us so.

Answers:

a) Here ‘them’ refers to the inmates of the house.

b) The promise which the traveller has made to one of the inmates that he would come one

day was the word the traveller has kept.

c) Yes, there is a suggestion of impatience in the part of the traveller.

The gestures of the traveller who was knocking on the door over and over again, and

continuously asking aloud if there was anyone inside, gives us the impression of traveller’s

impatience.

d) The poet uses many archaic words such as ‘spake' which ensure us that the poem is set in a

medieval time. Besides the use of archaic terms, the supernatural elements of the poem and

the traveller himself who must have been returning home from a lone quest at night clearly

shows that this poem is set in the medieval time.

2. No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

That dwelled in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on a dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Harkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call.

a) Why are the eyes of the traveller described as grey?

b) Identify two words used to give the poem an eerie atmosphere.

c) ‘Voice from the world of men'. Whose voice is it? how is it significant?

d) Why was he ‘perplexed and still'?

Answers:

a) The poet describes the eyes of the traveller as grey because the traveller seemed confused

and lost when he was knocking at the door, trying to convey a message which the reader

has no knowledge about it. The intention of the traveller is never known by anyone.

b) The two words used to give the poem an eerie atmosphere are ‘strangeness' and ‘phantom'.

c) It is the voice of the lonely traveller.

The voice is significant as it bridges the two separated world of the living and the death.

d) He was ‘perplexed and still' because he was expecting a response from the inmate of the

house. But despite repeated calls nobody answered him.

Answer these questions.

door?

Answer: In the poem, ‘The Listeners' the traveller was repeatedly knocking at the door as he had come

to keep his promise but he received no response. Yet he was continuously asking aloud if there was

anyone inside, but still there was no answer at all from a lone house. Then he sensed an eerie

atmosphere and came to the realization that no one was going to answer his calls. Later he felt uneasy

as he was alone in a quiet and silent place at that moment and finally decided to leave.
2. What does the Poet mean when he says the silence surged softly backward?

Answer: The poet means that as soon as the traveller has gone with his horse, the silence that

surrounded the house and its vicinity which was disturbed by the advent of the lonely traveller, re-

occupied the place and the house again.

Answer these questions.

Answer: In the poem ‘The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, the poet declares the atmosphere of the

poem through a series of horrific and eerie elements about the whole scene. The poet also keeps

many things unclear which only add to the mystery of the setting.

The poet brings together two worlds of the living and the death close to each other with the

advent of the lonely traveller about whom we know nothing except that he was there to keep a promise to the
inmates of the house. The poet, however, chooses not to reveal anything more about

the ghosts that inhabit the house. The inmate of the house became the listeners to the traveller’s

calls. Only the echoed sound were filled the silent house. The poet attempts to convey through the

poem that there is a parallel world of spirits which is invisible to human eyes and which we must be

ready to accept.

2. What are the poetic devices used in the poem?

Answer: Walter de la Mare has used many literary devices in the poem such as imagery, alliteration,

metaphor and simile.

Imagery- The imagery of silence is significant in the poem. The poet fills the house with images

of absence, silence and even death. The listeners are phantoms. This could mean they are dead or

absent. The listeners are the ‘quiet of the moonlight’ and the traveller is the ‘voice from the world of

men’. This imagery suggests the listeners are part of nature itself and the traveller is a lone man

asking questions but receives no response.

Alliteration – This poetic device is used by the poet in the poem as when the traveller leaves, the

listeners wait for the noise to fade away. The poet uses alliteration to suggest the sound of a light

breeze and whispering:

For instance;

‘And how the silence surged softly backward.’

The use of alliteration is also seen in the first line:

‘Of the forest’s ferny floor:’

listeners' exist in the house where the narrator comes to knock and receives no response. Silence or

emptiness becomes identified with phantoms in an extended metaphor:

‘ But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then.

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men’.

3. What is the poem implying about the inmates of the mansion?

Answer: The poem ‘The Listeners' is implying that the people in the house are dead and the ghostly

presence remain from prior inhabitants. We have some clues about this in the poem. We are told that

when the traveller knocks, there were

‘ Both only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then'

Question 1: What happened to the traveller knocks on the door for the first time?

Answer: Nobody answered him when the traveller knocked the door for the first time.

Question 3: Why is knocking on the door not answered?

Answer: Knocking on the door was not answered because there was no one in the house.

Question 4: Who do you think are the intimates of the house? Give reasons to support your answer?

Answer: The intimates of the house were ghosts. It is clear from the lines in poem 'But only a host of phantom
listeners that dwelt in the house'.

Question 5: What message does the traveller leave before going?

Answer: The message the traveller left before going was 'Tell them I came and no one answered.'

Question 6: What does 'The forest's ferny floor' suggest?

Answer: This suggests that nobody has been to the forest in a long time. It is green and overgrown.
Question 7: What does the bird suggest?Answer: The bird evidently has a nest in the turret and is startled by the
Traveller's cry after being used to silence.

Question 8: What does the turret suggest?Answer: The turret suggests that this mysterious house is a huge
impressive one.

Question 9: What signs of life aredepicted in the poem?

Answer: The bird is a sign of life and of course, the Traveller and his grass-eating horse. The stillness too somehow
for the seems alive Traveller feels it 'answering his cry'. The words he speaks echo 'through the shadowiness of the
still house'.

Question 10: Who do you think the listeners are? Why are they phantom like?

Answer: They seem to be people who once lived in the house and are now dead. They remain in their former
residence, however, as shadowy, mysterious figures.

Question 11: Read and answer the questions:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair, That goes down to the empty hall, Hearkening in an air
stirred and shaken By the lonely Traveller's call.

(a) Who stood thronging on the stair? Why was the stair 'dark'?

Answer: The host of phantom listeners stood thronging on the stairs. The stairs are dark because nobody inhabits
the house. Therefore, there is neither candle nor lamp to light the stairs.

(b) What is the meaning of the word 'hearkening'? Who was hearkening?

Answer: 'Hearkening' means 'listening'. The listeners of the title, who are phantoms were listening to 'that voice
from the world of men'.

(c) Who stirred and shook the air? What does the stirring and shaking of the air suggest?

Answer: The voice of the Traveller stirred and shook the air. The stirring and shaking suggests that the air was so
still that even a little sound could cause it to move.

Question 12: Read and answer the questions:

Is there anybody there? said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest's ferny floor;

(a)Where had the traveller come?

Answer: The traveller had come to a house in forest in night.

Answer: No, he didn't.

(c) What happened as a result of his knocking?Answer: No voice came nor anybody moved out in spite of his
knocking.

(d) Point out an instance of alliteration in these lines.

Answer: The instance of alliteration in these lines is 'forest's ferny floor'.

Question 13: Read and answer the questions:

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark tuff, s

Their stillness answering his cry. 'Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even Louder and lifted his head;

Tell them I came. And no one answered, That I kept my word,' he said.

(a) Who are 'he' and 'they'?

Answer: 'He' is the traveller and 'they' are the intimates of the house.

(b) What was strange about 'them'?

Answer: The strange about them was there was no movement and everything was still in the house.

(c) Why do you think he had come there?

Answer: He had come there to keep his word.

Question 14: Read and answer the questions:

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed still Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes'

Where he stood perplexed and still.

(a) What physical trait of the Traveller is mentioned here?

Answer: The physical trait of the Traveller mentioned here is 'grey eyes'.

(b) What was the Traveller expecting?

Answer: The Traveller was expecting to be greeted by someone.