Lesson video

Hi there.

My name is Mr. Charlesworth and I'm really looking forward to working with you today in this reading lesson.

We're going to be focusing on the poem, "The Listeners," which is written by Walter de la Mare.

We're going to be exploring the poem, the poet, and the themes in more detail.

I hope you're looking forward to learning more about poetry.

Let's get started.

The lesson outcome for today is I can interpret the poem and answer questions about it.

The key words are, my turn, your turn.

Inference, interpretation, imagery.

Let's try those once more.

Inference, interpretation, and imagery.

Well done.

Infants means to use clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

Interpretation refers to the process of understanding and assigning meaning to a poem, considering its language, imagery and themes.

Imagery involves the use of sensory language to create vivid mental pictures, enhancing the emotional impact of a poem.

Don't worry if you're unsure about any of the keywords.

We'll be exploring them throughout the lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to be reading and responding to the poem, "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare.

In the first part of the lesson, we're going to look at how we might interpret the poem and uncover meaning before then in the second half, looking at how we might answer questions related to the poem.

Let's begin by exploring how we might be able to interpret the poem and uncover more meaning from it.

Here's quick recap about what we've learned from the poem so far.

"The Listeners" uses sometimes which are antiquated.

That means it reflects the time in which it was written.

These examples include spake and smote.

While remembered, spate means to speak and to smote on the door was to knock on the door.

The narrative poem tells the story of a traveller who turns up on horseback knocking on the door of a house.

No one answers the door and the traveller cannot see anyone around.

Walter de la Mare describes a host of phantom listeners who listen to what the traveller has to say.

Before we begin exploring the poem, it's important to look at how poets use language in their poetry.

Poets can use language to convey emotions, evoke imagery, and create atmosphere in their work.

The beauty of poetry lies in the ability to evoke personal and diverse meanings.

Poets can use words that have more than one meaning.

This makes interpreting a poem a very unique experience, well noticed on both of our keywords.

It's important to remember that readers bring their own perspectives and experiences influencing how they interpret the language and the imagery within a poem.

That means responses can be personal and unique.

Today we're going to be interpreting the poem by looking at the story that Walter de la Mare tells his readers.

Here's our first check for understanding true or false.

Poems can only be interpreted one way.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now as you decide.

Well done.

There are multiple ways poems can be interpreted, therefore it's false and I'll let you to justify your answer.

Is it because A, vocabulary used in poetry can have more than one meaning? Or B, poet is used language to convey emotions, evoke imagery, and create atmosphere.

Which one best fits the original statement? Pause video now whilst you decide? Well done.

Whilst poetry can use language to convey emotions, evoke imagery and create atmosphere, the statement is talking about interpretation and that's linked to how vocabulary used in poetry can have more than one meaning.

Therefore, it can be interpreted in more than one way.

Let's now explore the imagery within the poem.

As I'm reading through, it might be useful to make a note of what's happening that can include the images that spring to mind as we're exploring the narrative together.

"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 outta the turret above the traveler's head, and he smote on the door again a second time.

"Is there anybody there?" He said.

So in the first eight lines of the poem we're introduced to a traveller.

He's unnamed and arrives at the door.

He's surrounded by the forest, which is filled with silence.

The forest floor is covered in ferns.

Walter de la Mare paints quite a vivid picture already.

We notice that bird flies up outta the turret.

The travellers knock perhaps disturbs this, making it fly.

Knocking again the traveller then asks the question, is there anybody there? Is at this point that we might expect someone to answer, but as we know from reading the poem before, that doesn't happen.

I wonder what atmosphere is created at the beginning of the poem? How is this achieved? Have a discussion with your talk partner.

Perhaps refer to the poem in your answer.

Pause the video now as you answer the question together.

Well done.

You might have said that the atmosphere is quite eerie or mysterious or foreboding.

It's making us want to read on to find out what happens next.

Here's our next check for understanding, based on what we've just read.

Which of the following statements are true? Is it A, the poem takes place at nighttime? B, the traveller arrives on foot? C, the traveller only knocks once? Or D, the bird flies outta the turret? There may be more than one.

You might like to refer to the poem to check.

Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Well done.

The answers are A and D.

The poem does take place at nighttime.

It refers to the moonlight on the door.

The traveller doesn't arrive on foot.

He arrives on horseback.

The traveller definitely knocks more than once throughout the poem and the bird does fly out the turret.

A turret is located at the top of the house.

An example might look like this.

Let's continue to explore the poem in his next eight lines, 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.

From these next four lines, we know that nobody answers the traveler's call.

He stands confused and stationary.

He mentions him being perplexed, that's worried or puzzled about something.

Perhaps he's wondering why no one's answered.

In the following four lines we're introduced to the listeners that reside within the house.

They hear the voice of the traveller, but they just stand there listening to him in the quiet of the moonlight.

I wonder who do you think the listeners are? How does Walter de la Mare describe them? Pause video now while you discuss with your partner.

Great work.

You might think that the listeners perhaps are spirits or ghosts from people who inhabited the house previously.

We know from reading the poem before that the travellers there for a specific reason and maybe a specific person.

Walter de la Mare describes them as phantom listeners.

They're not able to touch or do anything, but they can look and hear the traveller.

I wonder if a vivid image comes to your mind as you're reading.

Let's continue by exploring the next eight lines together.

Stood thronging in the faint moon beams on the dark stair, that goes down to the empty hall.

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken by the lonely traveler's call and he felt in their heart a strangeness their stillness answering his cry, while his horse moved, cropping the dark turf, 'neath the starred and leafy sky.

In this next section which continues straight on from the previous, we have moonlight being cast onto the stairs and illuminating the empty hall.

It gives us an impression that the house is quite vast, but it's empty with no one to inhabit it.

Apart from this horse for company, his call is described as lonely, which means perhaps it's the only voice around.

Hearkening here refers to listening, so listening in an air stirred and shaken.

In the next four lines, it describes the traveller feeling as though someone or something is near, but his calls still goes unanswered.

What I really liked here is that Walter de la Mare describes the sky as starred and leafy.

That means that perhaps there's not many clouds in sight and the leafiness is perhaps from the forest and the ferny floor.

It's described as quite luscious, not as scary and foreboding as I first thought.

Here's our next check for understanding.

Can you match the description to the characters within the poem? The descriptions are cropping the dark turf, stood perplexed and still, and dwelt in the lone house.

I wonder if you can match those to the characters.

Pause video now whilst you match 'em up.

Well done.

Let's see if you're correct.

Cropping the dark turf refers to eating and I remember turf meaning grass, so eating the grass.

It wouldn't be the traveller or the listeners.

The listeners definitely can't eat.

They're like spectres, like ghosts, so it must be the traveler's horse.

Stood perplexed and still, that means someone who's standing.

Both the traveller and the listeners are described as being quite still but stood, puzzled, and perplexed.

I think that refers to the traveller.

This means that the listeners dwelt in the lone house.

That means they stayed in their empty house.

Well done if you got those all correct.

Let's continue to explore the narrative and the imagery that springs to mind as we read.

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.

That I kept my word," he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners though every word he spake felt echoing through the shadowiness of the still house from the one man left awake.

From these next eight lines, we learn that the traveller suddenly knocks again this time, but louder.

He calls up to let the listeners know that he kept his promise.

Even though he knows nobody's there.

He gets this feeling and that's why I think he shouts up.

in the second four lines.

It describes as no movement or sound follows.

Everything's still and eerily silent.

Each word that the traveller says echoes through the empty house giving us the impression that the house has no person looking after it.

If something echoes, it might be because it's been empty or barren for a long time.

I'd like you to discuss with your talk partner what you think the one man left awake might mean.

Perhaps think about what's happened in the narrative so far.

You can of course refer to the poem and read the line before and after to help.

Pause video now while you discuss the question with your partner.

Well done.

I think the one man left awake just highlights the fact that the traveller is on his own.

The listeners are there, but they're not really there.

The one man left awake perhaps indicates that it's just one person, one human that's alive and that the listeners perhaps are like ghosts.

I wonder what you thought.

Let's now turn our focus to the final four lines.

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.

I know ay is like a call here.

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, so it's like saying yes.

Yes, they heard his foot upon the stirrup.

The stirrup is part of the horse's saddle, so I know that the traveler's getting onto his horse here and the sound of iron on stone is him getting onto the horse and the horse galloping away.

Usually horses will have iron horseshoes, which will make that sound.

The silence that's left describes as surging softly backwards.

That means it's almost retreating back into the house when the plunging hooves were gone.

So as the horse is galloped away, the scene is put back into silence, undisturbed again.

Here's our next check for understanding.

True or false.

The traveller keeps his promise.

Is that true or false? Pause video now whilst you decide.

Well done.

It's true.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it because A, the traveller tells the listeners that he kept his word? Or B, the traveller speaks to the listeners and tells them that he came to the house but no one answered? Which one best fits for the original statement? Pause video now whilst you decide.

Great work.

It's A, the traveller tells the listeners that he kept his word.

If you keep your word, it's like keeping a secret, not telling anyone.

The traveller does speak to the listeners and tells 'em that he came, but no one answers.

So this doesn't mention anything about keeping a promise.

In this first task, following our reading and responding to the poem, we're going to write an interpretation.

Well notice it's one of our keywords.

Considering the poem's language, imagery, and themes we're going to have a go at answering the following questions.

What do you think the poem is about? What's the overall narrative telling us? What did you connect with? So what did you respond to personally and what does it make you think about? You might like to use the sentence stems. I think the poem is about, I connected with, and the poem makes me think about.

It's important to remember that an interpretation of a poem will be personal and unique to the reader.

Each person brings their own perspective and their own experiences.

Pause the video now whilst you complete the task.

Fantastic work.

There are lots of different ways that you can interpret the poem and I hope you enjoyed sharing those with your partner.

Let's have a look at two possible examples.

Jun says, I think the poem is about a man who's made a promise to his love to visit them again, but time has moved on leaving the house to fall into ruin, isolated and empty.

That definitely fits in with the scene and setting that Walter de la Mare was trying to conjure in our minds.

Sophia says, I connected with the imagery of the poem.

Walter de la Mare` uses sensory description to really make me feel as though I was actually there.

I agree.

There's lots of references to what you might see and hear.

It really helps immerse the reader in the setting and scene.

I wonder if you can compare and contrast your interpretation to your partners.

Pause the video now whilst you do so.

We're now going to answer some questions about the poem using extracts to support us with our answers and reasoning.

There are several strategies we can use to help us develop comprehension of a poem.

We can use the layout features to navigate the text.

That includes looking at stanzas or lines in poetry.

This poem is a narrative poem, so it only has lines.

Another strategy that's helpful is to skim and scan for key terms. This helps you to retrieve the information you are looking for quickly.

We can look for clues in the text features, so that can include alliteration and repetition, and we can also read around the word.

That means that if we encounter any new or unfamiliar vocabulary, we can try to explain this by reading the lines before and after to add context.

Well remember the context is the details surrounding the information in the poem.

When we're answering questions that are not literally within the lines, we have to think about them.

That links to inference.

Inference means to use clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

It's a bit like being a detective and figuring out something that isn't directly said in a poem.

By using clues and what you already know, inferring meaning can help us to build understanding of a poem.

It can help us uncover hidden messages that the poet has planted and answer our own questions we have about the text.

We can look for clues in a text through poetic devices such as alliteration, repetition, or personification.

Let's practise this skill with an example question.

Does the traveller leave on his horse quickly? Well, I know he leaves on his horse at the end of the poem, so let's have a look at the final four lines.

Ay, they heard his foot on the stirrup and the sound of iron on stone and how the silence surge softly backward when the plunging hoofs were gone.

I wonder which words tell us about the traveller leaving.

Have a discussion with your talk partner.

Pause a video now whilst you discuss.

Well done.

I wonder if you picked out the same parts as I did.

We're focusing on the traveller leaving on his horse, so I know that his foot upon the stirrup is going to be important and the sound of iron on stone.

That's the horseshoe clattering against the stone as he's going away.

And we know that the plunging hoofs were gone.

When something's described as plunging, it reminds me of plunging into a pool diving quite quickly.

We know that the traveller has no need to stay now that his call has gone unanswered So I think with these three bits of information, I can safely say that he's trying to leave quite quickly.

Let's have a look at an example.

The traveller leaves on his horse quickly.

His foot is on the stirrup, which is part of the horse's saddle.

The sound of iron on stone is the horse's hooves, the verb plunging tells me the horse's feet are moving fast.

Here's our next check for understanding.

What is a suitable definition of inference? Is it a understanding exactly what the poet intended without having to think about it? B, guessing what might happen in the narrative poem? Or C, searching for clues within the poem to draw conclusions? Inference is sometimes referred to as reading between the lines.

Perhaps that might help you when you're making your decision.

Pause the video now whilst you decide? Well done.

Infants is searching for clues within the poem to draw conclusions.

It's not looking for literal interpretations.

It's allowing us to think and use evidence of the poem to support that reasoning.

In our final task, I'd like you to write a response to the following questions about Walter de la Mare's "The Listeners." Refer to the poem to support your answers.

The questions are, what action does the traveller repeatedly take in the poem? How many times does the traveller perform this action? The next question is, where does the poem primarily take place? What's the setting? Where is it located? The next question is, why do you think the phantom listeners in the poem remain silent and immobile? That means they're not moving.

And finally, what emotions or atmosphere does the poet create through the use of descriptive language and imagery? Make sure you've got a copy of the poem to refer to as you respond to the questions.

Pause the video now whilst you write down your answers.

Great work.

I hope you enjoyed exploring the poem and answering the questions in the process.

There are lots of possible interpretations, so let's explore a few examples together.

For the first question, which asks us what action does the traveller repeatedly take? That's the knocking on the front door.

The traveller repeatedly knocks on the door of the empty house.

He knocks a total of three times on the door.

Nobody answers.

For the question, where does the poem primarily take place? We know it's situated near a forest and this house is on its own to might have said the poem primarily takes place at an empty abandoned house in a forest.

The third question asked us about the phantom listeners and why they remain silent and immobile? You might have said something like, the silence and immobility of the phantom listeners might suggest a supernatural or mysterious quality.

Walter de la Mare might have used them to represent the person that the traveller has promised he'd visit.

And for the final question, what emotions or atmosphere does the poet create? You might have said, the poet creates a mysterious and eerie atmosphere through vivid and imaginative descriptions.

The language used makes the reader curious about who the listeners are and why the travellers come to the house in the first place.

These are just some of the possible responses, but you are similar or different.

I hope you've enjoyed using a poem to support your reasoning and understanding.

In today's lesson, we've been reading and responding to the poem "The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare.

We've understood that meaning in poems is open to interpretation.

There's no fixed message.

We've understood that readers bring their own perspectives and experiences to the poem influencing how they interpret the language and the imagery.

We've understood that inferring meaning can help us to build our understanding of the poem, and finally, that Walter de la Mare uses a range of poetic devices to create atmosphere in "The Listeners." I've really enjoyed exploring and interpreting the poem with you today.

I'm really looking forward to working with you again soon.