The Listeners: NBSE, AHSEC summary, MCQs, notes
Get here the summary, notes, questions, solutions, textual answers, pdf, and extras of the chapter The Listeners of NBSE Class 10 English and AHSEC Class 11 Alternative 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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Summary
The Listeners by Walter John de la Mare: Walter de la Mare’s ‘The Listeners’ is a stanza-long poem with thirty-six lines. On a moonlit night, a traveller comes on his horse and knocks at the door of a house. He demands that the door be opened, but receives no response to his call. There is a deathly silence within the house, and a bird flies out of the window above his head.
The traveller knocks at the door again but is once more met with silence. He stands all alone with his horse, which busies itself munching on the grass. His calls are heard by a group of spirits that dwell in the house. But they remain silent and motionless. Gradually, the traveller senses the eerie atmosphere and seems to come to the realisation that no one will open the door for him. He had probably come there to fulfil a promise that he must have made to an inmate of the house in the past. So he declares at the top of his voice: ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word.’ But his words echoed inside the silent house. The man finally gives up and mounts his horse to leave. As his horse gallops away into the darkness, the sound of its hooves on the stone is heard by the inmates of the house.
The poem has the theme of the supernatural and mystery. The traveller doesn’t fully accept the existence of spirits in the house. It shows the futility and narrow-mindedness of modern-age rationality. The poet attempts to convey through the poem that there is a parallel world of spirits that is invisible to human eyes and which we must be ready to accept.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. What does the Traveller ask upon his first knock at the door?
A. Is anyone home? B. Can you hear me? C. Is there anybody there? D. Will you let me in?
Answer: C. Is there anybody there?
2. What is the horse doing while the Traveller knocks on the door?
A. Sleeping B. Champing the grasses C. Galloping away D. Making noises
Answer: B. Champing the grasses
11. What signifies the Traveller’s departure?
A. The door opens. B. The sound of iron on stone. C. A farewell speech. D. The listeners’ applause.
Answer: B. The sound of iron on stone
12. What is the main theme of the poem?
A. Adventure B. Love C. Supernatural and mystery D. Warfare
Answer: C. Supernatural and mystery
Additional/extra questions and answers/solutions
1. What did the traveller say when he knocked on the door?
Answer: The stranger knocked on the door and asked if anyone was in the home.
2. What did the traveller do when he heard nothing back from that house?
Answer: Despite his obvious anxiety, the traveller stood there bewildered and immobile.
3. When did the traveller become perplexed?
Answer: It was the second time the traveller had tried knocking without success, and he was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake. He knocked twice, but no one answered, leaving him perplexed.
12. Why had the traveller gone there?
Answer: He had gone there because he had promised someone to visit the place.
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I learnt this poem at school and at seventy-six, can still recite it by heart. No indication is given – to my knowledge – that it refers to a particular era; I have, therefor, applied my own interpretation.
An officer of the British Army is returning home after the Battle of Waterloo. During the fighting, a brother officer was mortally wounded and pleaded with him to promise that, on his way he would call at his parental home and comfort them by saying his death had been swift. The traveler kept his promise but the occupants had previously deceased.
5. What is the effect created by the words ‘The silence surged softly backwards’?this is the question that i need answer . any it was helpful and thanku
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