The Listeners English Literature Class 8 Magic Place

The Listeners Question and Answers

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Part A: Short Answer Type Questions:-

1) Describe the place the traveller has come to?

Ans : The Traveller has reached an old deserted house in the middle of the forest.

It is night time and the forests floor is covered with ferns. The moonlight casts a beam on the door of the house. The

traveller knocks on the door, but there is no one who responds, only a bird suddenly flies out of the turret. The place has an eerie and mysterious quality.

2. What happens when the traveller strikes the door the second time?

Ans : When the traveller knocks on the door the second time no one came down to greet the traveller or leaned over the

leaf fringed window sill to answer his call.

3.How does the traveller sense the presence of others inside the house?

Ans : Although the air is quiet, the traveller senses that there are phantom spirits inside the house. As they throng the dark

staircase, he can feel their stillness answering his cry.

4. What does the traveller say before leaving?

Ans : The Traveller asked the phantom spirits to let the

others know that he had kept his word and that he had come to their door, but he left since no one answered.

5. What happens after the traveller leaves?

Ans : After the traveller leaves and the sound of the horses' hooves fade away the silence of the house slowly surged back.

Part B : Reference to Context:-

1. "And he smote upon the door a second time;

Is there anybody there?"he said.

a) Where is the traveller at this point?

Ans : The traveller is standing before the door of an old haunted house in the middle of the forest at this point.

b) What happens when he knocks upon the door for the first time?

Ans: When the traveller knocked upon the door for the first time his horse continued to champ the grass in silence while a bird flew out of the turret of the house soaring right above his head.

c) Does he get a response when he knocks the second time?

Ans : The traveller did not get any response when he knocked on the door for the second time.

2. "And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

'Neath the starred and leafy sky;..."

a. Who is they being referred to here?

Ans : The 'they' refers to the Phantom listeners inside the house. 

b. What had they done?

Ans : The Phantom listeners had responded to the travellers

cries with their haunting stillness.

c.  What does the horses reaction indicate?

Ans: The horse continued to chew on the grass, but he moved away a little. This shows that he was a little nervous

and frightened and may have sensed the spirits inside the house.

Part C: Think and answer

1. The poem arouses an eerie feeling in us as we read it. How does the poet achieve this ?

Ans : The poet creates an eerie atmosphere in the poem through the setting of the old deserted house in the middle of the forest. The moonlight and the night sky allow the poet to play around with the idea of shadows . Except for his

horse, the traveller is more or less alone and this adds to a sense of fear. There is an emphasis on the silence all around

and the Phantom spirits in the house make their presence felt only through their stillness. This stillness is only broken

from time to time by the birds call or the brief noises made by the traveller and his horse. These elements add a haunted

quality to the entire poem.