Student Question
This sounds like a really fun writing prompt. There is a lot of freedom for you to write about various things. The poem itself reads a bit creepy. A lone traveler arrives at a house at night. He knocks on the door and is greeted by silence. The poem mentions "phantom listeners" within the house, which is definitely eerie.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
The poem doesn't explain why the traveler is at the house. All readers
know is that the man made a promise to show up.
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,’ he said.
For your dialogue, I first recommend that you choose a genre. Is your
dialogue going to mirror the creepy and eerie mood of the poem, or is your
dialogue going to go a completely different direction? The prompt says to be
creative. I believe that gives you the freedom to change the mood of the
dialogue completely. I would write a comedy. Have your ghosts crack jokes about
the traveler. They know why the traveler is there, but perhaps they are hiding
from him in order to play a joke on him. The traveler doesn't state that he has
been prompt in keeping his promise. Perhaps it is years later
that he finally shows up. The listeners have grown tired of waiting for him,
and they decide that the man deserves some payback. They will make him
wait.
To make your ghosts funny and realistic-feeling, I would base them in
reality. Pick your two funniest friends. Imagine that they are the ghosts, and
write the conversation while thinking about how your friends would actually
speak and act in that situation. You could even use the names of your friends
for the names of the ghosts; although, I prefer Casper and Sir Simon for the
names of the ghosts.
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