The Listeners
Question and Answer:
Very Short Questions with Answers:
Question 1.
Who is the speaker?
Answer: The speaker is a traveller.
Question 2.
What was the horse doing?
Answer: The horse was grazing the grasses noisily.
Question 3.
Who were the listeners?
Answer: The listeners were the phantom or ghosts who lived in the lonely house.
Question 4.
How did the Traveller feel when nobody answered?
Answer: The traveler was confused when there was no answer.
Question 5.
What kind of feeling does the poem create?
Answer: The poem creates a mystical, lonely, strange, and eerie feeling.
Question 6.
Write the words which are used to create a sense of mystery.
Answer: Silence, phantom, listeners, lone house, dark stair, empty hall, lonely traveller, no
one descended, no head.
Short Questions with Answers.
Question 1.
Why did the horse champ the grasses?
Answer: The horse had travelled a long way to reach the lonely house in the forest and it was
tired and hungry. So the horse bit and chewed the grass noisily and hastily.
Question 2.
Name the characters in the poem.
Answer: The characters mentioned in the poem are the traveller, the horse, ghosts, and
‘they’.
Question 3.
Who were the ‘phantom listeners’?
Answer: The ‘phantom listeners’ were the ghosts and host of the lonely house who lived there
always even before their death.
Question 4.
How many times did the Traveller call and knock on the door?
Answer: Three times.
Question 5.
What were the ‘ghosts’ doing according to the Traveller?
Answer: The ghosts who were the hosts of the lonely house gathered at the steps leading to
the empty hall. They were silently listening to the call of the Traveller.
Question 6.
When and where does the action of the poem take place?
Answer: The action of the poem takes place during the night in a lonely house in the middle of
the forest.
Question 7.
The poem caption is “The Listeners.” Which words in the poem confirm that there were
listeners?
Answer: The phrases – ‘phantom listeners’, ‘stood listening’, and ‘hearkening’ confirm that
there were listeners in the house.
Question 8.
The poem “The Listeners” quote three phrases that tell the reader what time of day it is.
Answer: Line 2 – Moonlit door; Line 14 – the quiet of the moonlight; Line 16 – faint moonbeams
on the dark stair.
Question 9.
Justify with the words from the poem that the house was uninhabited.
Answer: When the traveller knocked the house and called, no one responded. The floor around
the house was ferny as no one used the area. Since there was no one in the house, birds
started living in the turret. Creepers grew on the window sill. A host of ghosts dwell in the
empty house.
Question 10.
State the words that portray greenery in and around the house.
Answer: Champed the grasses, forest’s ferny floor, and leaf-fringed sill.
long Questions with Answers:
Question 1.
Describe the lonely house in the forest.
Answer:
The lonely house in the forest had a fern plant carpet on the floor around it. There was a small
tower that projected from the wall of the lonely house, where birds nested. The window sill of
the house was framed with creepers. The moonlight shone on its door, dark stairs, and its
empty hall.
Question 2.
What do you know about the ‘phantom listeners’ by reading the poem?
Answer:
According to the lines in the poem, the phantom listeners are the ghosts who lived in r the
lonely house of the forest. They were the host and the owner of the house while they were
alive. But even after their death, they continue to live there as a group.
In the dark silent night, they listen attentively to the sound of the traveller which vibrates the
air, by standing as a crowd under the dull moonlight on the dark stair that leads down to the
empty hall.
Question 3.
‘Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken.
What is the figure of speech used here?
Answer:
Metaphor. This poetic device is used when a comparison is made between two different things
or ideas. In the above line, air is being compared to something that – could be stirred and
shaken but actually air cannot be picked up in order to shake.
Question 4.
Describe nature as seen through the poet's eyes.
Through the poet's eyes, nature appears mysterious, calm, and somewhat foreboding. The
moonlit night, shadowy forest, and stillness evoke a sense of solitude and suspense. The
"starlit silence" and "ferny floor" of the forest showcase a serene yet eerie beauty.
Question 5.
Think of a reason why the Traveller was determined to keep his word.
The Traveller's determination to keep his word suggests a sense of honor, duty, or an
unspoken promise. It might indicate his loyalty to someone he had committed to or a sense of
obligation to fulfill a pledge, even if the recipient is no longer present. This dedication adds to
the poem’s mysterious and poignant tone.
Question 6.
Explain the meaning of the line: 'Their stillness answering his cry'.
This line suggests that the only response the Traveller receives to his loud calls is the eerie
silence and stillness of the house and its surroundings. It emphasizes the loneliness and
mystery of the setting.
Question 7.
Who was the 'one man left awake'?
The 'one man left awake' is the Traveller himself, as everyone else appears to be either
absent, asleep, or symbolic spirits in the silent, abandoned house.
Question 8.
Write the words and phrases from the poem that describe the silence of the house and its
surroundings.
"starlit silence"
"the quiet of the forest’s ferny floor"
"listening in the shadowiness of the still house"
"the air stirred and shaken by the lonely Traveller’s call"
These phrases capture the eerie stillness and quiet of the setting.
