Introductory words :
The publication of the poem “The Listeners”
appeared as a magic in Walter de la Mare’s literary career, because the reading
public could listen Mare’s voice after
its publication in 1912 and the poet comes to limelight. In this poem the poet
has created a mysterious atmosphere and at the same time has told about the
story of human beings. The opening line “Is there anybody there ?” is the
eternal question of man in this earthly stage of life.
Summery
of the poem:
In a moonlit
night an unknown traveler comes on the back of a horse to a deserted house in
a forest. He knocks at the moonlit
door and calls aloud: “Is there anybody there ?” The horse starts munching the
grasses of the ‘forest’s ferny floor’ and
a bird suddenly flies out of the turret just above the traveler’s head.
No response comes from the inmates of the house and the man again knocks and
makes the same query. Nobody comes to open the door, none peeps through the
window to identify the traveler. He stands ‘perplexed and still’. He starts
feeling that a host of bodiless listeners stand on the dark stair and listen
his call silently. An uncanny feeling seizes his mind and he feels that the very silence is the
response to his call. With nervous hand he knocks the door for the third time
and calls even louder and leaves his message : “Tell them I came and no one
answered/That I kept my word.” His words are echoed through the silence of the
empty haunted house, but the phantom listeners make no stir and make no answer.
The traveler rides on his horse and gallops away . The phantom dwellers listen
the sound of the hoofs and silence gradually occupies the entire area.
Supernatural Aspect :
There is an
enchanting story in this poem of Walter de la Mare “The Listeners”. The poet
has created a supernatural atmosphere with some word play and some suggestive
strokes. The poet has kept everything in vague that makes the mind of the reader curious . Fusillade
of questions comes to the reader’s mind. Who is the traveler ? Where is the
house situated? Why is the house deserted now?
What has happened to the inmates of the house? Why has the traveler
come ? Why nobody responds ? A state of imprecision pervades everything. This
vagueness brings about a nebulous atmosphere. The expressions like “forest’s
ferny floor” and “leaf –fringed sill” prove that nobody dwells in the house
now and for this the front yard is covered
with weeds like fern and the creepers occupy the sills of the window. It
certifies the misty nature of the place. Above all, the sudden flight of the
bird over the traveler’s head and the playing of light and shade through the
big trees in the moonlit forest augment the eeriness of the atmosphere.
Central
Theme :
The subject
matter of the poem “The Listeners” hears like an uncanny story but the theme is
not so common and simple. The poem provides us with a philosophical idea, the very nature of human world. Beyond
this human world there is the world of the dead which is called the other
world. The dim house where the traveler has come represents the other world.
The denizens of this living world sometimes come to the door of other world and
knocks at the door. He tries to make a communication ,but in vein. The dwellers
of that world also gather at a certain place, perhaps ready to communicate but
no communication is possible. Actually,
a man wants to communicate with the dead world during his life time, desirous
to probe the reality and to know everything of the dead world. But that is not possible as a fine barrier
named ‘death’ stands between living world and other world. The world of the dead is so near
but it seems to be a far land. The knock
at the door in this poem may be interpreted as the knock at one’s heart. The nature of man is to knock at the door of other’s heart with some desired purpose but it seems unintelligible like a world full of darkness, like the
haunted house.
Symbol
and image :
The poem “The Listeners” is replete with some
symbol and image. The deserted house is the symbol of the other world full of
darkness. The traveler is the representative of human beings. The closed door symbolizes
death. The silence stands for the coldness and quietness of the dead world.
Meaning
of title:
In this poem
the phantom dwellers stand on the dark stair, they listen every call of the
traveler, they enjoy the disturbance in the silence but they make no response.
Actually, they listen only , their duty is only to listen. So they are merely
listeners. It may be that they are desirous to answer to the traveler’s call,
but they have no power to respond as their duty is only to listen. It may be
indicative that the denizens of the other world can listen everything of this
living world, and they are merely listeners. The function of the listeners is
adherence to the title of the poem.
