Admittance Into Afterlife Nicholas Mediati 10th Grade

As humans, we are configured to strive to get the most out of our lives, no matter how that may be. However, that often means we succeed at the sacrifice of others. Humans are not perfect, however the mistakes that many people make at some point in his or her life are unforgivable. Many believe in a form of afterlife. Those who do also believe that one must be deserving and do good during one’s time here on earth to earn admittance into that afterlife. The poem, “The Listeners,” written by Walter de la Mare, is attempting to teach its readers that we all must be our kindest, greatest selves during every single moment within our precious lives on earth. He exhibits this by showing that those who attempt to venture off into eternal life and happiness are never worthy of admittance. Therefore, we must renovate our lifestyles and truly begin to achieve our greatest potential as a group, with no major complications, in order to deserve a spot in eternal paradise.

The setting in which the poem takes place is a crucial part of understanding what the speaker is attempting to teach its readers through the poem. The Traveller comes upon a house with “only a host of phantom listeners”(Line 13) inside, “thronging the faint moonbeams on the...