Page 128 - Lavender-B-8

Now, read a poem about a traveller standing outside a moonlit door, seeking entry and
repeatedly asking if anyone is there.

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;
Can we say that
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses the poem is reflecting

Of the forest’s ferny floor: the themes of isolation,
Just a Minute!
communication, and
And a bird flew up out of the turret, mystery?
life skill critical thinking
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,
champed: bit or chewed upon noisily
‘Neath the starred and leafy sky; turret: a small tower that projects from
the wall of a building
For he suddenly smote on the door, even smote: (here) knocked loudly

perplexed: confused
Louder, and lifted his head: thronging: crowding
hearkening: listening attentively