PARAPHRASE AND SPECIMEN TEXTUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM

‘THE LISTENERS’ BY WALTER DE LA MARE

PARAPHRASE
A traveller knocks at the door of a mansion with turrets in a forest on a moonlit night and
asks if anyone is in. He wants to be let in but there is no reply from inside. His horse munches
grass in the undergrowth while the traveller waits for a response in the silence that is
heightened by the flutter of wings of a bird that flies out of a tower.
The man knocks again but there is no sound of anyone coming down the stairs to open the
door for him; no sight of a face looking down from the window above to see who could be
knocking.
The narrator suggests that there were countless ghosts from the past, standing on the stairs
inside the house, listening to the lone man outside from the world of the living. All he could
feel was stillness of their presence.
So, he knocks louder and calls again asking them to pass on the message to the people who
had lived there, that he had come as he had promised. But the listeners from within do not
respond as they hear him get on his horse and ride away.

A. 1. The Traveller has reached an old, deserted house in the middle of the forest. It is
nighttime and the forest floor is covered with ferns. The moonlight casts its beam on
the door of the house. The traveller knocks on the door but there is no one who
responds. Only a bird suddenly flies out of the turret. The place has an eerie,
mysterious quality.

2. Nothing happens when the Traveller knocks on the door the second time. No one
comes down to greet the traveller or leans over the leaf-fringed sill to answer his call.

3. Although the air is quiet, the Traveller senses that there are phantom spirits inside
the house. As they throng the dark staircase, he can feel their stillness answering his
cry.

4. The Traveller asks the phantom spirits to let the others know that he had kept his
word and had come to their door. But he leaves the place since no one answers to his
call.

5. After the Traveller leaves and the sound of his horse's hoofs fade away, the silence
of the house slowly surges softly back.

B. 1. a. The Traveller is standing before the door of an old, haunted house in the middle
of the forest at this point.
 b. When the traveller knocks upon the door for the first time, his horse continues to
champ the grass in silence while a bird flies out of the turret of the house, soaring right
above his head.
c. The Traveller does not get any response when he knocks for the second time.

2. a. The 'they' refers to the phantom listeners inside the house.

b. The phantom listeners had responded to the Traveller's cries with their haunting
stillness.
c. The horse continues to chew on his grass, but he moves away a little. This shows that
he was a little nervous and frightened and may have sensed the spirits inside the house.

C. 1. The poet creates an eerie atmosphere in the poem through the setting of the old,
deserted house in the middle of the forest. The moonlight and the night sky allow the
poet to play around with the idea of shadows. Except for his horse, the Traveller is more
or less alone, and this adds to a sense of fear. There is an emphasis on the silence all
around and the phantom spirits in the house make their presence felt only through
their stillness. This stillness is only broken from time to time by a bird's call or the brief
noises made by the Traveller and his horse. These elements add a haunted quality to
the entire poem.

POETIC DEVICES IN ‘THE LISTENERS’ BY WALTER DE LA MARE

Literary Devices are techniques that writers use to convey their ideas, feelings, and message
to the readers. Walter de la Mare has also used various literary devices to enhance the
intended impacts of his poem. Some of the major literary devices are analyzed below.

1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the
sound of /o/ and /oo/ in “Knocking on the moonlit door.”

2. Alliteration: It is the use of successive consonant sounds in the initials of the successive
words. For example, the sound of /f/ in “forest’s ferny floor” and /h/ in “his horse.”

3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For
example, the sound of /s/ in “And his horse in the silence champed the grasses”, /n/ in “Leaned
over and looked into his grey eye” and the sound of /s/ and /l/ in “Stood listening in the quiet
of the moonlight.”

4. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line
break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,
“Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.”
5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For
example, “Their stillness answering his cry”, “Neath the starred and leafy sky” and “Louder,
and lifted his head.”

6. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the

objects that are different. The poem shows the use of the metaphors of atmosphere, ghosts,
and man. The most significant metaphor in the poem is the one that suggests that “phantom
listeners” exist in the house where the narrator comes to knock and receives no response.
Silence or emptiness thus 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”

The comparison of silence/emptiness to phantoms is used for a large portion of the poem.

7. Personification: The poet used silence, shadowiness, and stillness as if they have emotions
and a life of their own. For example, “Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair.”
“The silence surged softly backwards…”, “Their stillness answered his cry”

8. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from literal meanings. Here the night, the stillness, the traveller,
and the ghosts are symbols of mystery and supernatural elements.

9. Onomatopoeia: When sounds are spelt out as words, or when words describing sounds
actually sound like the sounds they describe. Onomatopoeia words in the poem are:
‘chomped’, ‘smote’, ‘echoing’, and ‘plunging.’

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