BY WALTER DE LA MARE
(1873-1956)
The Listeners
‘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:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
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:
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.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
’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.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Walter de la Mare is considered one of modern
literature's chief exemplars of the romantic
imagination. His complete works form a
sustained treatment of romantic themes: dreams,
death, rare states of mind and emotion, fantasy
worlds of childhood, and the pursuit of the
transcendent.
1‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
2 Knocking on the moonlit door;
3 And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
chewed
4 Of the forest’s ferny floor:
Many ferns/plants
ALLITERATION
OF THE “FSOUND”
5 And a bird flew up out of the turret
Cylindrical tower rising
from a building.
Suggests that it is a
mansion or château.
6 Above the Traveller’s head:
7 And he smote upon the door again a second time;
Struck/pounded
8 ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
9 But no one descended to the Traveller;
Came down
10 No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Windowsill
11 Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
12 Where he stood perplexed and still.
bewildered
13 But only a host of phantom listeners
Shadowy, ghostlike
i.e. spirits
14 That dwelt in the lone house then
15 Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
REPETITION (LINE
15 AND 17)
16 To that voice from the world of men
17 Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
REPETITION (LINE
15 AND 17)
Crowding, jostling
one another
18 That goes down to the empty hall,
19 Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
Listening carefully;
paying close
attention
METAPHOR
Comparison of the air to a
thing that can be shaken
20 By the lonely Traveller’s call.
21 And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
22 Their stillness answering his cry,
PARADOX (absurd or contradictory
statement which, when analysed is
found to be true)
Stillness is giving an answer.
23 While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
Feeding on; biting off
24 ’Neath the starred and leafy sky;
Omission =
Beneath
Leaves silhouetted
against the sky
25 For he suddenly smote on the door, even
ALLITERATION
Struck; pounded
26 Louder, and lifted his head:—
ALLITERATION
Dash – draw the readers
attention towards
information that is to
follow.
27 ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
28 That I kept my word,’ he said.
29 Never the least stir made the listeners,
30 Though every word he spake
Old English word:
“spoke”
31 Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the
still house
METAPHOR
Words are compared to
something falling loudly with a
clutter in a quiet room/house.
32 From the one man left awake:
33 Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
“Yes”
D-shaped foothold
part of a saddle
34 And the sound of iron on stone,
Sound of horseshoes
striking the pavement
35 And how the silence surged softly backward,
ALLITERATION
PARADOX
One cannot hear silence, but
the silence was so
impenetrable (deafening) that
it could not be ignored
36 When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Narrative poem = A story which has a beginning,
middle, climax and end.
 It centres around a traveller’s encounter with
the supernatural.
 Specifically a Ballad (rhythm has a strong beat,
written to be sung)

Third person
Setting
 Late on a moonlit evening at a dwelling in a
forest.
 The time is late 19th century – early 20th
century.
Tone
 Serious and the atmosphere is eerie and
otherworldly.
The Traveller
 A man who arrives on horseback late at night
to call at a dwelling in a forest. When he
pounds no one answers.
The Listeners
 Phantoms inside the dwelling who listen to the
Traveller speaking as he pounds on the door.
They do not respond to him.
NOTE: It could be that the Traveller is actually
the phantom and the Listeners are the humans…
Them
 The people that the Traveller came to see (line
27).
 However, these people do not respond,
possibly because they are sleeping, they do not
wish to see the Traveller, or they are now living
elsewhere. It is also possible that they died and
became the phantom listeners.

Every second line rhymes
Supernatural Eavesdropping
 We sometimes sense that a ghostly presence is
observing us.
 Such moments tend to occur when the sun is
down, the moon is up, and an eerie stillness
surrounds us.
 In “The Listeners”, the man identified as “the
Traveller” senses that otherworldly beings are
eavesdropping on him. He responds to them.
They do not respond to him, however. They are
only there to listen.
Mystery
 The poem is metaphor for the mysteries we
ourselves encounter as listeners or as callers
rapping at a door.
 We go through life asking why, and then seek
answers. But we do not always get them,
whether we are looking for them in religion,
science, social interaction, or in ourselves.
1a The poet mentions “the forest’s ferny
floor”.
1b Alliteration
2 The house must be larger as it has towers.
The walls are covered with leaves, up to the
window sills. It is in a forest and seems to
be deserted. The house is in darkness.
3 “perplexed”
4a If birds were occupying the turrets, no
one had been living in the house for some
time.
4b One usually finds turrets on large
houses with several storeys.
5 The fact that the Traveller arrived on
horseback, and the use of old-fashioned
words like “spake”, “hearkening” and “ay”
suggest that this poem is set in an earlier
time.
6a Initially the Traveller knocked, an
ordinary way of announcing one’s arrival
at a door. Then when there was no reply, he
banged much harder, in case his initial
knock had been too soft. They reinforce the
idea of no humans being present.
6b He is probably becoming impatient or
even angry at being kept waiting.
7 We are told they are a “host”, that is a
crowd and then again in line 17, they are
“thronging” the staircase.
8a The poet creates a ghostly, eerie
atmosphere.
8b “moonlit” / “silence” / “phantom” /
“strangeness” / “stillness” /
“shadowiness”
9a The previous occupants might have died
as a result of disease or being attacked.
They might just have left or maybe they
were carried away by an enemy.
9b “That dwelt in the lone house then”
9c Normally everything is still. The
Traveller’s arrival caused “the air (to be)
stirred and shaken”.
10 He was an important visitor, perhaps
someone who had influence on the
previous occupants.