The Listeners Questions & Answers

Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Listeners Questions & Answers.

This poem is written by Walter de la Mare. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Life of John Smith, Charles and Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S so, you can check these posts as well.

The Listeners Questions & Answers

Word Galaxy

  • Perplexed – confused
  • Champed – chewed
  • Ferny – covered in ferns
  • Cropping – biting off and eating the tops of plants
  • ‘neath – underneath
  • Sill – a shelf-like ledge below a window
  • Turf – grass and the surface layer of earth held together by roots
  • Thronging – crowding
  • Hearkening – listening attentively
  • Smote – here, knocked loudly

Question 1: Choose the correct option:

(a) Where had the Traveller come?

i. to a turret of a cathedral
ii. to a dwelling in a forest
iii. to a mansion in a city

(b) Why had the Traveller come to the place?

i. to ask the listeners for shelter
ii. to seek revenge against the listeners
iii. to keep his promise

(c) Which figure of speech has been used in the line ‘Of the forest’s ferny floor’?

i. repetition
ii. alliteration
iii. personification

Question 2: What happened to the traveller knocks on the door for the first time?

Answer: Nobody answered him when the traveller knocked the door for the first time.

Question 3: Why is knocking on the door not answered?

Answer: Knocking on the door was not answered because there was no one in the house.

Question 4: Who do you think are the intimates of the house? Give reasons to support your answer?

Answer: The intimates of the house were ghosts. It is clear from the lines in poem ‘But only a host of phantom listeners that dwelt in the house’.

Question 5: What message does the traveller leave before going?

Answer: The message the traveller left before going was ‘Tell them I came and no one answered.’

Question 6: What does ‘The forest’s ferny floor’ suggest?

Answer: This suggests that nobody has been to the forest in a long time. It is green and overgrown.

The Listeners Questions & Answers

Question 7: What does the bird suggest?

Answer: The bird evidently has a nest in the turret and is startled by the Traveller’s cry after being used to silence.

Question 8: What does the turret suggest?

Answer: The turret suggests that this mysterious house is a huge impressive one.

Question 9: What signs of life are depicted in the poem?

Answer: The bird is a sign of life and of course, the Traveller and his grass-eating horse. The stillness too seems alive somehow for the Traveller feels it ‘answering his cry’. The words he speaks echo ‘through the shadowiness of the still house’.

Question 10: Who do you think the listeners are? Why are they phantom like?

Answer: They seem to be people who once lived in the house and are now dead. They remain in their former residence, however, as shadowy, mysterious figures.

Question 11: Read and answer the questions:

The Listeners Questions & Answers

(a) Who stood thronging on the stair? Why was the stair ‘dark’?

Answer: The host of phantom listeners stood thronging on the stairs. The stairs are dark because nobody inhabits the house. Therefore, there is neither candle nor lamp to light the stairs.

(b) What is the meaning of the word ‘hearkening’? Who was hearkening?

Answer: ‘Hearkening’ means ‘listening’. The listeners of the title, who are phantoms were listening to ‘that voice from the world of men’.

(c) Who stirred and shook the air? What does the stirring and shaking of the air suggest?

Answer: The voice of the Traveller stirred and shook the air. The stirring and shaking suggests that the air was so still that even a little sound could cause it to move.

The Listeners Questions & Answers

Question 12: Read and answer the questions:

The Listeners Questions & Answers

(a) Where had the traveller come?

Answer: The traveller had come to a house in forest in night.

(b) Did he get a response?

Answer: No, he didn’t.

(c) What happened as a result of his knocking?

Answer: No voice came nor anybody moved out in spite of his knocking.

(d) Point out an instance of alliteration in these lines.

Answer: The instance of alliteration in these lines is ‘forest’s ferny floor’.

Question 13: Read and answer the questions:

Questions & Answers

(a) Who are ‘he’ and ‘they’?

Answer: ‘He’ is the traveller and ‘they’ are the intimates of the house.

(b) What was strange about ‘them’?

Answer: The strange about them was there was no movement and everything was still in the house.

(c) Why do you think he had come there?

Answer: He had come there to keep his word.

Question 14: Read and answer the questions:

The Listeners Questions & Answers

(a) What physical trait of the Traveller is mentioned here?

Answer: The physical trait of the Traveller mentioned here is ‘grey eyes’.

(b) What was the Traveller expecting?

Answer: The Traveller was expecting to be greeted by someone.

(c) Why was he ‘perplexed and still’?

Answer: He was ‘perplexed and still’ because he was expecting an answer from the inmates of the house but despite repeated calls, there was no response.

So, these were The Listeners Questions & Answers.

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