“Some One” (A Poem)

Although Walter de la Mare is best known for his poem “The Listeners,” which describes a lone traveler’s encounter with an abandoned house, the author produced numerous works with a supernatural theme. In “Some One,” the narrator recounts an eerie incident involving unknown knocking at the front door. The poem has a slight resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” with its rapping and tapping. Interestingly, when “The Listeners” and “Some One” are read together, they seem to speak to each other: “Some One” could possibly be written from the perspective of the silent listeners, who finally answer the door once the traveler and his horse have left.

Some one came knocking

At my wee, small door;
Some one came knocking, 

I’m sure – sure – sure;

I listened, I opened, 

I looked to left and right, 

But nought there was a-stirring

In the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle

Tap-tapping on the wall, 

Only from the forest

The screech-owl’s call, 

Only the cricket whistling

While the dewdrops fall, 

So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.

Works Referenced

de la Mare, Walter. “Some One.” Down-adown-derry: A Book of Fairy Poems. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1922. 143-144.