WALTER DE LA MARE
934 The Listeners
<TS there anybody there ?> baid the Traveller, X Knocking on the moonlit door, And his horse m the silence champ'd the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor* And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head And he smote upon the door again a second time;
'Is there anybody there ?> he said. But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill Lcan'd over and look'd into hit, grey eyes,
Where he stood perplex'd and still. But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt 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 stirr'd and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call. And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry, While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starr'd and leafy sky; For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head 'Tell them I came, and no one answer'd,
That I kept my word,' he said. Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
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