One-off workshop: The Listeners

The Listeners by Walter de la Mare is a mysterious, supernatural poem. It details a lone traveller, arriving by horse to an abandoned, moonlit house in the forest. He knocks several times, but there is no reply. He senses phantoms are listening, so asks the phantoms to tell ‘them’ that he kept his word and came to the house, but that noone answered. He then rides away again. This lesson is for 10- to 14-year-olds.

Resources

• Copies of the poem, which can be photocopied from page 34.
• Pairs of different coloured felt-tips, (for groups of 4).

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, pupils will have:

• Meaningfully and interactively engaged with the character, setting and plot
• Actively explored the poem using words, gestures and movement
• Devised and performed a preceding scene that is congruent with the poem.

Active listening and visualisation:

Before reading them the poem, ask students to close their eyes and imagine they are invisible and present, watching and listening, as the scene unfolds. They should keep their eyes closed afterwards, until asked to reopen them. Read students the poem.

Sensory sentence stems:

With their eyes still closed, ask your students to speak sentences that start with, ‘I can see…’ or ‘I can hear…’, for example: ‘I can see a bright moon, high above’ or ‘I can hear the horse, noisily munching grass’. They can speak in random order, with nobody speaking twice in a row. Encourage them to elaborate descriptively.

Movement:

Groups of four, with copies of the poem. Ask them to underline anything that suggests movement or stillness, such as knocking or stirring. Then they select three words as the stimulus for a piece of movement they will devise and perform.

Performance carousel:

The groups perform in turn, ‘as if’ they are on one stage, performing to an invisible audience.

Physical theatre and talking objects:

Ask students to circle words in the poem that refer to the house, such as the door, stairs or turret. They will then physically represent various parts of the house, entering the space in turn and positioning themselves appropriately. As each person gets into position, they state what they are, and add some detail, for example: ‘I am the turret, high on the roof. Birds nest inside me’. Several people can become the same feature, by physically joining it on stage, and adding more information, for example, ‘I am the turret and I can see for miles’. You could also invite them to add features that are not mentioned in the poem but would fit, such as: ‘I am a windowpane, covered in dirt and cobwebs.’

Teacher in role/talking objects:

You will now approach the house, ‘in role’ as the man. The students are still physically representing the house together. They and can talk to you, or about you during the scene. You sense their presence but can't hear them. You knock on three occasions and finally, call out, ‘Tell them I came, and no-one answered, that I kept my word’, then turn and walk away.

Staging columns and sentence stems:

The class stands in a line, facing an imaginary audience. Divide the ‘stage’ space into three areas (columns): ‘I know’, ‘I think I know,’ and ‘I want to know’. Explain that, in turn, anyone may step forward, position themselves in one of the designated areas and voice the relevant sentence stem aloud, for example: ‘I know the traveller has promised to come here’, ‘I think I know, that he won't be coming back’ and ‘I want to know who he gave his word to’.

Passing thoughts:

You stand in the centre of a class circle, as the traveller. They may cross the circle in random order. As they pass you, they each ask you a question, such as ‘Who are you?’ or ‘How far have you travelled?’

You don't answer. If you wish, their questions could be written on self-adhesive labels and placed around a ‘role on the wall’ afterwards.

Small group playmaking:

In groups of two to four, ask students to devise a short scene that is set in the past. It must end with a freeze-frame, when the man says, ‘I give you my word’.

Performance carousel:

Each group's scenes are to be performed in turn. They could be performed silently a second time, with an accompanying narrative instead of speech.

Extra addition – writing opportunity:

The scenes could be written as verse afterwards and lead straight into the poem.

Improvisation:

In pairs, where one is the traveller and the other a curious friend, improvise a scene where he is retelling the story about his recent visit to the house.

The Listeners

by Walter de la Mare

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed 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

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed 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 stirred 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 starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,’ he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.