Is there anybody there (The Listeners) Lyrics

Is there anybody there? said the Traveler

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest's ferny floor:

A bird flew up from the turret

Above the Traveler's head:

And he struck the door again a second time;

Is there anybody there

Calling to The Listeners?

In the moonlit shadows' glare

I stand here a messenger

Through the silence voices whisper

Phantoms listen unaware

In this realm the night grows crisper

Is there anybody there?

Is there anybody there? he said

But no one came down to the Traveler;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over to meet his grey eyes

Where he stood perplexed and still

Only a host of phantom listeners

Dwelt in the lonely house then

Stood listening in the quiet moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

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 Traveler's call

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;

Is there anybody there

Calling to The Listeners?

In the moonlit shadows' glare

I stand here a messenger

Through the silence voices whisper

Phantoms listen unaware

In this realm the night grows crisper

Is there anybody there?

For he suddenly struck the door even

Louder and lifted his head:—

Tell them I came and no one answered

That I kept my word" he said

Never a stir from the listeners

Though every word he spake

Echoed through the shadowy still house

From the one man left awake:

Is there anybody there

Is there anybody there

They heard his foot on the stirrup

And the sound of iron on stone

And how the silence surged softly backward

When the plunging hoofs were gone

Never a stir from the listeners

Though every word he spake

Echoed through the shadowy still house

From the one man left awake:

Is there anybody there

Is there anybody there

They heard his foot on the stirrup

And the sound of iron on stone

And how the silence surged softly backward

When the plunging hoofs were gone