The Listeners poem by Walter de La Mare | Summary in English

Описание: Summary of the poem The Listeners in English

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Transcript: In this video we'll discuss the strange poem 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare. If you read the poem, you will be left with a feeling of incompleteness, as if something is missing from the poem - a climax that really tells us what is happening. But it seems the poet doesn’t care about giving a clear explanation of things. But is it really the case? Is the poem really incomplete? Or are we missing something?

Hi everyone, this is Ron’e Dutta from onlinefreenotes.com. Before we begin the discussion, if you are looking for questions and answers related to this poem, visit our website onlinefreenotes.com where we provide solutions of different subjects of different classes across different boards in India. With that being said, let's jump into the poem.

Walter de la Mare’s ‘The Listeners’ is a stanza-long poem with thirty-six lines and different people have interpreted it in different ways. This video is our interpretation of the poem that deals with the theme of the supernatural.

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 ghosts that dwell in the house. But they remain silent and motionless. Gradually, the traveller senses the strange atmosphere and seems to come to the realisation 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 ghosts of the house.

The poem has the theme of supernatural and mystery. The traveller doesn’t fully accept the existence of spirits in the house. It shows the narrow-mindedness of modern-age rationality. The poet attempts to convey through the poem that there exists a parallel world of spirits or ghosts that is invisible to human eyes, and we must be ready to accept this fact.

I hope our discussion has given you some new insights and perspectives on this timeless poem. If you enjoyed this video, please consider liking and subscribing to our channel. Thank you for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.