How does the poet describe the atmosphere in the poem "The Listeners"?

The atmosphere of "The Listeners" is eerie and quiet.

The speaker directly tells readers that the area is quiet. We are told that the horse eats grasses in silence. We are also told that the traveler's voice and knocking are the only sounds disturbing the "stillness." In fact, "still" and "stillness" are used three times throughout the poem. No movement means silence. Sound is created through vibrations, so no vibrations means no sounds. The quietness...

The atmosphere of "The Listeners" is eerie and quiet.

The speaker directly tells readers that the area is quiet. We are told that the horse eats grasses in silence. We are also told that the traveler's voice and knocking are the only sounds disturbing the "stillness." In fact, "still" and "stillness" are used three times throughout the poem. No movement means silence. Sound is created through vibrations, so no vibrations means no sounds. The quietness of the area is also indirectly described. Readers are told that the house is alone in a forested area. If you've ever been in a thick forest, you've experienced how all of the trees, bushes, grasses, etc. have the ability to muffle sound.

The entire atmosphere of the poem is made eerie by placing the house alone in a forested area. Add to that the fact that the traveler is at the house at night. Forests and night often give readers and audiences foreboding feelings. The eerie feelings are compounded by the silence and the fact that the narrator repeatedly tells readers about "listeners" in and around the house. We have no idea who or what these listeners are, so our imaginations start to come up with all kinds of fantastical possibilities. Most of those possibilities are not calm, logical possibilities, either.