[Walter de la Mare answers the question 'What does "The Listeners" mean?'] Typed Letter Signed ('Walter de la Mare') to Sonia Drynan, explaining, with a quotation from Lewis Carroll, his position on the meaning of the poem.

De la Mare's definitive answer to the oft-asked question regarding the meaning of his best-known poem - and also one of the most celebrated English poems of the twentieth century - 'The Listeners'. 1p, 4to, in good condition, lightly aged, folded twice. After thanking her for her 'kind letter', he adds: 'I am afraid you may not find my answer to your question a very satisfactory one. Any particular poem is bound to have a different meaning for any particular reader of it, and I should prefer you to keep whatever meaning “The Listeners” may have for you, rather than to impose mine.' In support of his position he ends by quoting a 'passage in a letter from Lewis Carroll to someone who had asked the meaning of “The Hunting of the Snark” that I think may amuse you'.