The Listeners-poem
Walter De La Mare "THE LISTENERS"
Summary
The poem "The Listeners" is written by the poet "Walter De LA Mare" . In the poem there is a traveller who knocks on a moonlit door and asks, "Is there anyone in the house?" The traveller's horse silently grazes in the forest. The traveller impatiently knocks and repeats the question. There is no response from the house. The traveller stands there confused . It seems that there are some phantom listeners inside house and the phantom listeners are standing silent. The traveller feels strange and says louder to whoever is listening that he kept his promise and came but no one answered. Then the traveller sits on his horse and rides away. This poem leaves many questions in the readers' minds.
Literary devices of poem
The listeners
Rhyming Scheme:
ABCB
Verses:
Thirty six verses
Repetition:
There is a repetition of a rhetorical question
"Is there anybody there?. The poet asks it twice to make the situation mysterious.
Assonance:
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line.
Knocking on the moonlit door.
The sound of /O/OO is assonance in the listeners.
2. Alliteration:
A successive consonant sounds in the initials of the successive words.e.g.
In "Forest's ferry floor" the sound of "f"
"His horse" the sound of "h".
Imagery:
It is imagination of readers using five senses.
Their stillness answering his cry
Neath the starred and leafy sky
Louder and lifted his head.
Metaphor:
It is a comparison of objects that are different.
Metaphor of atmosphere , ghosts and man are used.
THEME
There are many themes in the poem "The Listeners" by "Walter De Marte". The themes of mysterious isolation, hope and existence of supernatural phenomena touches the poem "The Listeners". Other than above the poet broadly discuss the themes of creepy calmness, and strange landscapes keeping the minds of readers scrolling around the urge to find out the real listeners of an abandoned house.
Main Idea
The main idea of the poem "The Listeners" revolves around the mysteriousness of the world where every human is a traveller. All that a human gets on his questions is a mysterious quietness from the phantom listeners listening to him.
