In the moonlight, the Traveller, an anonymous figure, knocks on a house's door and asks
whether anyone is home. While the Traveler waits for an answer, his horse grazes in the peaceful
forest. A bird soars above the Traveler's head and emerges from a tiny tower atop the house. The
Traveler knocks once more, harder this time, asking the same inquiry. But nobody comes out to
greet him from the house. Not even one person looks at him when leaning out of the window, its
sill strewn with fallen leaves. He remains motionless, perplexed by the absence of a response.
There are several eerie figures in the house. Standing in the moonlight, these "listeners" take in
the human voice emanating from outside. The Traveller's lonesome voice breaks the still air in
the abandoned house, and the ghostly figures swarm around the stairway onto which moonlight
streaks. In the solitude that answers his inquiry outside, the Traveler feels the presence of
something unusual. His horse is still grazing in the pitch-black forest, unperturbed by the trees
that cover the starry sky overhead. Abruptly, the Traveler bangs on the door once more, this time
with much greater volume. He then calls out, requesting that anyone listening convey the
message that, despite his commitment to keep quiet, no one answered him when he arrived at the
residence. There is no movement from the listeners in response to this. The only live person in
the house is the Traveler, and her words echo throughout the empty, dark house. He leaps upon
his horse, and the phantom listeners hear the sound of horseshoes hitting the stone walkway as
the Traveler rides out. The sound of the horse's rough and tumble riding soon disappears, and the forest is silent once more .
Critical Analysis:
"The Listeners" is the title piece from Walter de la Mare's second collection of poems,
which was released in 1912. It is still among his most well-known works of literature and
illustrates his interest in mystery and the paranormal. The poem describes an unidentified
"Traveller" coming onto an abandoned home that appears to be haunted by ghosts, but it doesn't
address the reader's many concerns about the identity of these beings.
"The Listeners" has a number of intriguing subjects. These include loneliness and
seclusion, as well as the unknown and supernatural. All of these topics are covered in this
enigmatic poem, which also discusses the weirdness of the world and how incapable humanity is
of fully comprehending it. The poem itself is mysterious, keeping the reader at a distance from
the listeners' true identities and intentions. Every aspect of the eerie landscape that De la Mare
crafts is both remarkably unaltered and incredibly bizarre. It is up to the traveler to find his way
around this globe alone. The poem contains thirty-six lines within a block of text. The work
follows a consistent rhyme pattern following the pattern abcbdefe etc., varying the ending sounds
as the poet intended.
De la Mare chose to create rhyming pairs separated by unrhymed lines. This allows the
poem to maintain some unity without falling into song-like patterns. Because of the melancholic
tone throughout, this choice is very useful. As for the rhythm chosen by de la Mare, it has a
sedative quality. This means there are two unstressed syllables, followed by one stressed
syllable. This creates a sense of anxiety in a room, adding another layer to the overarching theme
of loneliness.
Walter de la Mare employs a number of literary tropes in "The Listeners." They consist
of, but are not restricted to, imagery, anaphora, and enjambment. One of the most significant
devices in the poem is the latter. It is evident throughout, as the poet paints a picture of the
surroundings and the traveler's experience.
The breaks between lines demonstrate enjambment. Between lines 10 and eleven, for
instance. Another formal technique is anaphora, which is demonstrated by the recurrence of
words at the start of lines. For instance, the words "And" in lines five, seven, thirty-four, and thirty five.
Since the rhyme scheme of the poem is ABCB, the text can be divided into 9 verses.
They are grouped into a single stanza, making it seem quite long. Looking at the poem's rhyme
pattern, the reader can see that de la Mare uses some slanted rhymes that deviate from the fixed
pattern, such as the rhyme "sit still". Regarding meter, de la Mare uses iambic pentameter, often
used in ballads, and includes several anapest verses in the middle. The entire poem is written
from a third-person perspective.
The speaker in this play appears to be one of the listeners, who recounts the events
exactly as they happened that night. In the poem "The Listener" there are many vivid images.
From the beginning, de la Mare arouses the reader's sense of hearing by using the words "hit,"
"gnaw," "bird flew away," and "hit." Turning to the visual aspect of the poem, the reader can
find phrases such as "the moonlit door", "the fern floor in the forest", "the dim rays of the moon
on the dark staircase" adding to the intensity. level for the already mysterious plot. Images
associated with the character's movements are also found in the poem. For example, the final
lines, "And how softly the silence rushed in, / When the sound of galloping hooves was gone"
aptly describe how the Traveler rides away in electric style. As mentioned in the summary, this
work has two main characters. Essentially, the Traveler is the only character whose voice and
actions are highlighted. Therefore, in relation to the listener, the Traveler is the most specific
character in the poem. On the other hand, the listener may be interpreted as a ghost or
otherworldly figure, unable to communicate with the Traveler. Other animated characters in this work inculed the travler horse and Bird.