Get here the summary, notes, questions, solutions, textual answers, pdf, and extras of the chapter The Listeners of AHSEC/ASSEB Class 10 English. However, the given notes and solutions should only be used for references and should be modified or changed according to needs.
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Discussion 1
1. Why did the traveller knock at the door?
Answer: The traveller had promised to meet the household’s occupants, so he knocked on the door.
2. Did anyone answer his knock?
Answer: His knock was ignored.
3. What does the poet refer to as the “voice from the world of men”?
Answer: The “voice from the world of men” is the voice of the traveller.
4. Explain the phrase “perplexed and still”?
Answer: Perplexed and still can be defined as being both bewildered and immobile. The phrase is used to illustrate the traveller’s state of bewilderment and immobility.
5. What time of the day is described in the poem? Pick out the words that suggest this.
Answer: The poem takes place at night. Words like “moonlit door,” “moonlight,” “moonbeams,” “starred and leafy sky,” “shadowiness,” and “one man left awake” all imply that it was night.
6. List out the words that have been used to describe the listeners. What kind of a picture is created by these words? Do you think they are ordinary people? Give reasons for your answers.
Answer: Some descriptions of the listeners include “a host of phantom listeners,” “dwelt in the lone house,” etc.
These words conjure up an image of an eerie, mysterious place where time seems to have stopped.
As the listeners stayed hidden, the traveller could only sense their presence, but he knew they were there. Ghosts were probably the only inhabitants of the lonely house. In addition, the voice of the traveller was the only one heard coming from the realm of men.
7. Why have the hoofs of the horse been described as “plunging”?
Answer: His horse’s hooves were said to be “plunging” because he spurred it to leave quickly.
8. What is the effect created by the words “The silence surged softly backwards”?
Answer: When the traveller hurried forward, “the silence surged softly backward,” implying that everything had returned to its previous state of eerie quiet, was true. The room fell silent.
Discussion 3
1. And his horse in the silence chomped the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor.
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the traveller’s head :
(a) What does ‘his’ refer to?
Answer: ‘His’ refers to the traveller’s.
(b) What has disturbed the bird from its nest in the turret?
Answer: The visitor’s persistent rapping at the door scared the bird out of its turret nest.
(c) Which part of the country is the traveller in?
Answer: A hilly region of the country now surrounds the traveller.
(d) What is he doing here?
Answer: He’s making an effort to contact and speak with the household’s occupants.
2. But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwell in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
(a) Who are the ‘host of phantom listener’s?
Answer: There is a “host of phantom listeners” in that lonely house.
(b) What were they listening to?
Answer: They were listening to the traveller’s voice.
(c) Whose is the ‘voice from the world of men’? Explain the phrase.
Answer: The phrase “voice from the world of men” refers to the voice of a traveller.
(d) Who stood ‘throughing the faint moonbeams on the dark stair’?
Answer: The phantom was seen standing on the dark staircase, “throughing the faint moonbeams.”
3. Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
(a) Who are the ‘they’ mentioned in these lines?
Answer: They’re talking about ghosts here, so that’s who ‘they’ are.
(b) Where does the sound of iron on stone’ come from?
Answer: When a horse gallops quickly, the sound it makes against the stony road can be described as “iron on stone.”
(c) Why do you think the person is in such a hurry?
Answer: Because the individual wishes to leave the location as soon as possible.
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