"The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare

The Poem's text can be found here

"The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare is a poem telling about a traveller reaching a secluded house and twice knocking on the door, with no answer, before leaving. The event leaves many questions, but still manages to hold a strong theme. De la Mare evokes vivid images of the setting and structures the poem to accentuate the time passing for the traveller as he waits.

At the very beginning, the traveller asks if anyone is there as he knocks on the door. Briefly a description of the surroundings is given before he knocks a second time. Now inside the house is chronicled, with those dwelling in it not answering his calls. Fed up, the traveller loudly proclaims to the house to tell that he was there, but got no answer, and that he kept his word. With that, he left, as the listeners made not a sound and let him go.

The first question this event raises has to do with the traveller's presense. Why was he at this house? What word was he keeping by showing up to this secluded house at night? The poem gives no clue to this, nothing to lead us to possible conclusions. However, we still learn a bit about the traveller as a person. He may be considered an honorable man. Whatever he promised, he has attempted to follow through by showing up to this place.

The next question to consider deals with the titular listeners. Who or what are they? This "host of phantom listeners" is never more deeply described. Are they indeed ghosts, or are they silent men? Are they actually many, or one? Or could a phantom listener be one who doesn't exist at all, and is absent from the building? All we can deduce is that the traveller expects someone or something that he has previously had contact with to be inside.

So this man, the traveller, has come out of his way to this house to keep his word, and is only turned away by the silence of the listeners. He made worthy attempt to keep his end of some bargain, but found it impossible to keep when the door was not opened for him.

Likewise, one must put all reasonable effort into each promise, deal, or relationship he or she has. Then, however honorable, there does eventually come a point at which the effort is no longer worth it. For the traveller, he knocked twice before the effort became unreasonable. After that point, it is only worthwhile to move along in life.

Yes, the traveller could well have stood by that door all night, perhaps through the day, knocking and shouting, waiting for the door to be opened. But with his two attempts, he could be sure that he was not going to get inside. The stillness of the listeners did answer his cries, and he understood that answer told him that he was not to wait around.

The listeners represent the people in life who decent people associate with. When they are faced with an honest attempt to do good, though, they don't allow this to be completed. They prevent it with their silence, by being essentially absent. The theme shows that when one comes across such listeners, one cannot be bothered to wait around forever, and that there are better things to do. It is unwise to waste time reaching to great lengths when there will be no results.