Read the excerpt from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol [Jail]” by Oscar Wilde.That night the empty corridorsWere full of forms of Fear,And up and down the iron townStole feet we could not hear,And through the bars that hide the stars White faces seemed to peer.

The phrase “feet we could not hear” suggests that the corridors are extremely quiet, even though something seems to move through them. The words “empty” and “stole” also create a sense of stillness and hushed movement. So the excerpt draws attention to how quiet and still the setting is, rather than showing that the speaker is surrounded by many people.

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