The Listeners

“Tell them I came, and no-one answered

That I kept my word” he said 

There is something beautifully haunting about this poem by Walter De La Mere. A poem where we do not know the full story, we are only given a Snapshot -  a brief window into world where the adventure is over and time has moved on. But there are objects that have been left behind that are relics of what have been. Take for example the house and the weary traveler who arrives late into the night. The house is dark and quiet, night has set in and there is a chill in the air. The dark adds to the illusion that the adventure is over, it has been swallowed into the night. Is the traveller too late? The promise that the traveller made - was it all in vain?

“only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight”

Perhaps he is too late? For only ghosts remain. The real question is then, who are the ghosts? And who is the traveller? I think the most interesting part of this is, who here is dead and who here is truly alive? If we look at the traveller “perplexed grey eyes”. They are colourless, is there any life left within them to truly end the adventure that once was? My theory is a little strange, but seeing as this is October and the month where all the ghosts come out to play, what if our traveller is stuck in-between the living and the dead. For the dead are listening, but they do not -  or perhaps cannot answer him.

“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”

‘The one man left awake’ is oddly poignant. It may corrupt my theory of the traveller being dead and stuck in the in between. But, what if this is the travellers consciousness left ‘awake’ and unable to rest, because the promise that was made has been left unfulfilled. There is a sense of urgency from the traveller, especially at trying to alert those within, the word of ‘smote even harder’. There is a sense of desperation, an act that has yet to be fulfilled, how can our traveller move on - when he is unable to keep his promise?