What is the summary and theme of the poem the listeners?

What is the summary and theme of the poem the listeners?

The poem tells the story of an unnamed “Traveller” approaching an abandoned house seemingly inhabited by ghosts, but leaves the reader’s many questions as to who these entities actually are unanswered. Get the entire guide to “The Listeners” as a printable PDF.

What is the theme of supernatural in the listeners?

The poem “The Listeners” explores the idea of the supernatural that is prevalent in De La Mare’s work. The work opens with a foreboding presence of this abandoned house. The theme of a supernatural imagination is present in this poem that compels the reader to embrace both what is there and what might be there.

What is the poem the listeners by Walter de la Mare about?

‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare describes the actions of a Traveller who knocks on at the door of a seemingly deserted home at night. The poem begins with the speaker designing the Traveller and his horse. They are at the door of a house on which the Traveller is knocking.

What is the tone of the listeners poem?

The poem is physically set in a moonlit wood at nighttime, which helps set the eerie tone of the poem. The house in the middle of the forest is no less creepy, described as ‘lone,’ ’empty,’ ‘shadowy,’ and ‘still. ‘ Throughout the poem, the reader experiences an unnerving chill right along with the Traveller.

Why does the poet calls himself a Traveller?

(i) Why does the poet call himself a traveler? His lips and pale and steel does not feel the poet arm. Ans (iii) The Shepherd follow his ship all the day. Ans (iv) The poet call the Sleepless because it isnever calm as the waves are always in motion.

Why was the Traveller perplexed and still in the listeners?

Ans: He was ‘perplexed and still’ because he was expecting an answer from the inmates of the house but despite repeated calls, there was no response. 3. And he felt in his heart their strangeness, Their stillness answering his cry.

What signs of life are depicted in the poem?

The only sign of life is a bird that flies out of a turret, within, only “phantom listeners” (13). He knocks on the door three times, each time more loudly, but there is no response from within. He shouts, “‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,/ That I kept my word,” (27-28).

What are the poetic devices used in the poem the listeners?

The Listeners Literary Elements

  • Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View. Third-person omniscient speaker.
  • Form and Meter.
  • Metaphors and Similes.
  • Alliteration and Assonance.
  • Irony.
  • Genre.
  • Setting.
  • Tone.

What two methods of travel are mentioned in the poem?

Answer: 1. The poet took the second road. 2. The poet chose the second road over the first thinking that he would come to it some other day.

Where does the Traveller find himself in the poem?

The traveller finds himself in the yellow woods at a point where the two roads diverge. The problem that he faces is that he cannot decide which road to take to continue his journey.

Why did the Traveller knock at the door the listeners?

The traveler knocked at the door for he wanted to meet somebody there with whom he seemed to have promised to come perhaps after along gap of time. The travelers on smiting at the door but nobody answered the door.

What is the underlying theme of the listeners?

The paradox at the center of “The Listeners” is that even as its power derives from its deliberate ambiguity, one could equally argue that its underlying theme is about the importance of searching for meaning and understanding. This theme is realized less in the actual text of the poem than in the response of most readers.

What are the themes in the listeners by Walter de la Mare?

There are several interesting themes in ‘The Listeners’. These include the unknown and the supernatural as well as isolation and solitude. This mysterious poem touches on all these themes while more broadly speaking on the strangeness of the world and humankind’s inability to fully understand it.

Where does the poem the listeners take place?

Get the entire guide to “The Listeners” as a printable PDF. 8 ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said. 12 Where he stood perplexed and still. 20 By the lonely Traveller’s call. 28 That I kept my word,’ he said. 36 When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Who are the ghosts in the listeners poem?

The poem tells the story of an unnamed “Traveller” approaching an abandoned house seemingly inhabited by ghosts, but leaves the reader’s many questions as to who these entities actually are unanswered. Get the entire guide to “The Listeners” as a printable PDF. 8 ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said. 12 Where he stood perplexed and still.