full summary of The Listeners by Walter De La Mare
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Explanation:
Walter de la Mare published "The Listeners" in 1912, as the title poem of his second collection of poetry. ... 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.
SUMMARY: The Listeners by Walter John de la Mare: Walter de la Mare's 'The Listeners' is a stanza-long poem with thirty-six lines. On a moonlit night, a traveller comes on his horse and knocks at the door of a house. He demands that the door be opened, but receives no response to his call. There is a deathly silence within the house, and a bird flies out of the window above his head. The traveller knocks at the door again but is once more met with silence. He stands all alone with his horse which busies itself munching on the grass. His calls are heard by a group of spirits which dwell in the house. But they remain silent and motionless. Gradually, the traveller senses the eerie atmosphere and seems to come to the realization that no one will open the door for him. He had probably come there to fulfil a promise that he must have made to an inmate of the house in the
past. So he declares at the top of his voice: 'Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word. But his words echoed inside the silent house. The man finally gives up and mounts his horse to leave. As his horse gallops away into the darkness, the sound of its hooves on the stone is heard by the inmates of the house.
The poem has the theme of the supernatural and mystery. The traveller doesn't fully accept the existence of spirits in the house. It shows the futility and narrow-mindedness of modern-age rationality. 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.
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