"The Listeners" By Walter De la Mare.
If you go back to your First Year university memories you will find out that you met the character of the " traveler" in your book entitled Prose and Poetry Appreciation. In Ozymandias, the poet also introduces the character of the traveler as a common icon of life experiences obtained through free movement: in classical times it was the character of the " wanderer" , the hermit and the sophist wanderer
that attracted poets and enchanted them. Anyways, the traveler of this poem is not himself the poet as the poet is telling us about the traveler and not about himself. This is exactly what happens in Ozymandias by Shelly. This is to give much credibility to the story of the traveler which the poet is conveying to us in an unbiased detached way.
Lines 1- 11
A traveler is knocking at the door of a lonely house. All around is dark except for a weak moonbeam which lights part of the door. The horse of the traveler is " champing" the grass nearby and a bird flies away off the " turret" when it sees the traveler knocking at the door. These three signs ( moonbeam, horse, bird) are the only signs of life in that lonely place. When the poet notices their presence there, he feels much confident that he is still alive and that his being there at that place and that moment is real and not a dream or unreal experience. Therefore, shouting " Is there anybody there?", the traveler knocks ( smote) at the door much violently to wake up those whom he imagines to be inside. Alas, no answer! Nobody looks into his " grey eyes" as an old experienced traveler.
Lines 12-21
The traveler is perplexed, confused why no one is answering his shouts and he feels that there must be someone hearing and perhaps even listening with attention to his shouts outside: ghosts or "phantom listeners". The only thing connecting the active life outside the house with the inactive life inside the house is the " moonbeam" which penetrates the "stairs" and the " empty hall".
Lines 22-37
The traveler FEELS that the listeners inside are very strange. He does not see the ghostly listeners but he feels them. The poem is about this spiritual experience of feeling between two different worlds, be them the worlds of the living and that of the dead. In Islamic and other religious and human cultures, there is the belief that the dead hear and listen to us, but we are unable to hear or listen to them.We often deal with the world of the dead in our capacity of feeling as we know nothing scientific about it. We feel that the dead become happy when we do something good for their souls, yet there is no scientific proof about that. Therefore, the poem is best understood and loved on this level of feeling which the poet wants us to share with him. Because this experience of feeling the unreal or intangible is a very difficult human experience, the poet looks around to make sure that he is a living not a dead person. He sees the star-studded sky and again his horse which is still there.
The traveler is now sure that he is alive and he tries knocking" louder" stronger than before at the door. The sentence which he utters before leaving is very curious and mysterious at the same time. At the beginning we think that the traveler is a stranger in that place but with this sentence, we are sure that he had known the dwellers of this house some time in the past: he says " Tell them I came, and no one answered/ That I kept my word". His words are very strong, meaningful and heartfelt; however they receive no answer from those inside the house. The traveler leaves the place and silence comes back and gobbles it again.
The overall feeling the poem leaves us with is that of estrangement and alienation which is a characteristic feature of modern poetry in general. That poetry has come to document Man's wicked intents and deeds against his kind( brother) which manifested themselves clearly in two great world wars and their aftermaths or results.
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جميع الردود تعبّرعن رأي كاتبيها فقط. حريّة التعبير عن الرأي والرد متاحة للجميع( بما لا يخل بالنظام العام والادب)