The Highwayman Analysis

The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees,

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor,

And the highwayman came riding--

Riding--riding--

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.



He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, and a bunch of lace at his chin;

He'd a coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of fine doe-skin.

They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to his thigh!

And he rode with a jeweled twinkle--

His rapier hilt a-twinkle--

His pistol butts a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.



Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred,

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--

Bess, the landlord's daughter--

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.



Dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked

Where Tim, the ostler listened--his face was white and peaked--

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,

But he loved the landlord's daughter--

The landlord's black-eyed daughter;

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say:



"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart; I'm after a prize tonight,

But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.

Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,

Then look for me by moonlight,

Watch for me by moonlight,

I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."



He stood upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,

But she loosened her hair in the casement! His face burnt like a brand

As the sweet black waves of perfume came tumbling o'er his breast,

Then he kissed its waves in the moonlight

(O sweet black waves in the moonlight!),

And he tugged at his reins in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.



He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon.

And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,

When the road was a gypsy's ribbon over the purple moor,

The redcoat troops came marching--

Marching--marching--

King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.



They said no word to the landlord; they drank his ale instead,

But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed.

Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets by their side;

There was Death at every window,

And Hell at one dark window,

For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.



They had bound her up at attention, with many a sniggering jest!

They had tied a rifle beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!

"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her. She heard the dead man say,

"Look for me by moonlight,

Watch for me by moonlight,

I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."



She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!

She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!

They stretched and strained in the darkness,

and the hours crawled by like years,

Till, on the stroke of midnight,

Cold on the stroke of midnight,

The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!



The tip of one finger touched it, she strove no more for the rest;

Up, she stood up at attention, with the barrel beneath her breast.

She would not risk their hearing, she would not strive again,

For the road lay bare in the moonlight,

Blank and bare in the moonlight,

And the blood in her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love's refrain.



Tlot tlot, tlot tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hooves, ringing clear;

Tlot tlot, tlot tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?

Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,

The highwayman came riding--

Riding--riding--

The redcoats looked to their priming! She stood up straight and still.



Tlot tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot tlot, in the echoing night!

Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!

Her eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breath,

Then her finger moved in the moonlight--

Her musket shattered the moonlight--

Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him--with her death.



He turned, he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood

Bowed, with her head o'er the casement, drenched in her own red blood!

Not till the dawn did he hear it, and his face grew grey to hear

How Bess, the landlord's daughter,

The landlord's black-eyed daughter,

Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.



Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon, wine-red was his velvet coat

When they shot him down in the highway,

Down like a dog in the highway,

And he lay in his blood in the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.



And still on a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,

When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

When the road is a gypsy's ribbon looping the purple moor,

The highwayman comes riding--

Riding--riding--

The highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.



Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,

He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred,

He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--

Bess, the landlord's daughter--

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

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the denotative/ literal meaning of the poem deals with the tragic and forbidden love affair of Bess and the highwayman. HOWEVER the connotative/ metaphorical meanign deals with the hero's struggle with authority (or anti-hero since the highwayman is a criminal). this does not mean that the poem is not about love because it is. but if you are looking for the connotative meaning of it, then well, yes, i just explained it :)

| Posted on 2009-11-05 | by a guest

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I had to write an assessment on this.
The poetic devices I know in this are
Onomatepia,
Rhyme,
Punctuation, (if you count that as a device)
Verses, (same as x thats about it. If you know any more just add another message. =D

| Posted on 2009-11-02 | by a guest

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I had to do an essay for homework about this. Good points to use are the basic poetic devices, the diction (choice of words), the use of colour, the mood, the portrayal of the main characters and the readers reaction. mention how Noyes was using these to make the readers interpret is as something. the poem is all about how love conquers all and self sacrifice can be the most brilliant gift but also the most painful.

| Posted on 2009-10-07 | by a guest

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they ve make me do an interview to tim as if a am the prense

| Posted on 2009-10-02 | by a guest

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they ve make me do an interview to tim as if a am the prense

| Posted on 2009-10-02 | by a guest

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This is all about the unconditional love that they felt for each other.One is willing to sacrifice everything for the the sake of love, even her own life.

| Posted on 2009-09-27 | by a guest

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this is not about the men being bad the highwayman did not know she was dead all he heard was a gunshot and saw a head hanging ove ra musket. how was he supposed to know it was her? First instinct if someone's just been shot and the gunmen could be anywhere--your first instinc is to run. it is only later on in the story where he is told it is her and he charges back enraged to the gunmen who he knows it is very plausible they wioll shoot him down. However, he SACRAFICES himself for her and his love. He would rather be dead with her than alive and alone. He could have just accepted her death and moved on and found another girl. but, he did not because love trumps logic. True love accepting people for who they are if she loved him he probably wasn't that bad. A theif she looked past. Sure, the soldiers where bad male representatives. However, in my oppinion you are being sexist and the Highwayman was just as interally right, honest, romantic, and as good of a person as Bess.

| Posted on 2009-06-09 | by a guest

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Plaiting, means braiding, and a dark red love knot is a red ribbon.
This is a poem about forbidden true love, and like most love stories it has a love triangle. Bess loves the highway man, and vice versa but she does not love Tim, but Tim loves Bess and is jealous of the Highway man.
This poem uses an awful lot of symbolism, and some of it is the use of colors to explain a meaning. Like red, it is associated with Bess' lips and her ribbon, and the "claret velvet", of the highway man's coat is red also. Connection? Yes, there is a connection, red is associated with them both. It connects them it is a symbol of their love, and passion. And towards the end it is a symbol of their blood. Which, ties them together again, because it shows that their love was true. And that nothing can dissever it.
For example, in the last stanza that is in italics, it is a repeat of the first with some very critical but small changes. It shows that nothing can break them apart, not Tim, not King George and his men, not the father, not the world, not even death can take them apart .
And lastly i would like to say, that if you dont know how to analyze poetry and if you do not know what your talking about do NOT criticize things. Okay? He was not on drugs, and yes it does make sense. So, use your brains.
Thanks much,
-D.N.V

| Posted on 2009-06-05 | by a guest

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Guy who wrote on 28th of March, he is not a drug addict. >:/
AND NO EET IS NUT WEETARDUD!
*rage meter full!*

| Posted on 2009-06-01 | by a guest

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Oh yeah, and I finally know what the hell what a stable wicket means. If a wicket means that 'thing' in cricket, it most probably means a partition between the different animal stables. I wonder why nobody looked on Wikipedia.

| Posted on 2009-06-01 | by a guest

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Ok. Let me get this straight, OK, Mr guy who wrote on the 29th of May? :)
Guy goes up to doorway.
Taps with whip on window, nobody answers.
Whistles, Bess comes.
Tim da ostler is hiding behind a stable wicket (I also don't know what the hell a stable wicket means either.)
He hears and messes up a romantic scene (no really!)
Guy leaves to da west.
Evil people/King George's men come to da inn.
Capture Bess.
Bess shoots herself to warn da guy that evil people/King George's men r gonna kill 'im.
Guy doesn't know dat da dead woman s Bess.
When E finds out, he rushes back at house and gets shot.
Ghost scene.
THE END!!!

| Posted on 2009-06-01 | by a guest

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please help, im in year 8 and we are doingsome gcse prep wrk on this poem,ITS DUE TUESDAY! please help i need to know the effect of imagery and the morel!

| Posted on 2009-05-30 | by a guest

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To my understanding, it is about the landlord's daughter, Bess fell in love with the Highwayman. And something happened in between, lastly the highwayman died, he was shot by the soldiers(I think). And now I have to explain most of the sentence in detail and I have no idea what to say...o.0

| Posted on 2009-05-29 | by a guest

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this guy was on way too many drugs when he wrote this. it makes no sense at all it is retarted x(

| Posted on 2009-05-28 | by a guest

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hey... im in year 7 and i'm doin an assesment on the highwayman... my teacher told me the poem is meaning that bess and the highway man are in love but it is forbidden love and therefore will have to keep it a secret but tom the ostler was listening to their convosation. the soldeirs tied her to her own bed and held a gun to her breast and in order to save the highway man, she shot herself and the highway changed the direction of which he was going. Later he decided to go back and he got shot on the spot.
Now my teacher set us an assesment on writng a diary entry on us being the highway man or bess but i have nbo idea what to do!!

| Posted on 2009-05-28 | by a guest

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what does albert mean by "plaiting" when he says "Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark red love-knot into long black hair."? Does it mean, like, putting or something?

| Posted on 2009-05-26 | by a guest

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I had to read this poem when i was in year 5 and i didn't really understand it fully or grasp the concept of what the poem is truly about. However i find the interpretation of the fact that Bess is in fact the victim of her love for the highwayman interesting. But someone else mentioned that the barrel of the musket was aimed at her but i thought she was tied up with it beside her and that it was aimed at her chest. Is this wrong? plus i didn't think he rode back to the inn door and he got shot there either, and that he saw bess in the window with blood all over her and that is why he rode away with such anger and upset. is this wrong too?

| Posted on 2009-05-26 | by a guest

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No i think that the theme of the Highwayman is that if you truly love someone you would do anything for them or that true love conquers all because even though they both die in the end it says that their ghosts still meet.

| Posted on 2009-05-24 | by a guest

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examples of some adverbs in the piece of the highway man i need help as its in for tommorow please help!

| Posted on 2009-05-20 | by a guest

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The Highwayman is set during the American Revolutionary war when the British army, known by the colonists as 'redcoats' were occupying the area and trying to stamp out rebellion against the king. The poem tells a story of a young couple; Bess, the daughter of an inn-keeper and a highway man, or robber.
Money was very difficult to come by during the Revolutionary war, and highway robbery was not uncommon. His occupation could be interpreted as a hint that he was a Tory, stealing from the Patriots and King George's Men as a way of fighting for American Independence. The detail of his "French-cocked hat" could reinforce this interpretation as the French were allies of the American colonists, providing them with supplies and fighting with them against the British. Because he says he will "come for her," it could also be interpreted that the money he steals will be used for the both of them to get married.
Because he is an outlaw, they meet in secret by moonlight. Another man who works for the inn, Tim, overhears the Highwayman telling Bess he will come for her at the latest by the moonlight of the next night. Because Tim is also in love with her, or at least with her beauty, he tips off the Redcoats and they try to ambush the Highwayman at the inn.
They tie up and gag Bess and aim a musket at her so she won't try or be able to warn the Highwayman when he comes. After hours of working at the ropes binding her, she is able to get one finger on the trigger of the musket. When she hears his horse getting close, she pulls the trigger so the sound of the shot will warn the Highwayman of the Redcoats hiding and waiting to kill him. This allows him to get away, although it unfortunately comes at the price of Bess sacrificing her life in the hopes of rescuing the life of the man she loves. He rides away safely, unaware that she was hurt or killed. Then next morning he learns of her sacrifice and death, and in his grief rides back at the Redcoats. They shoot him and he dies without doing them any harm.
The last two stanzas tell of the legends that say the ghosts of the Highwayman and Bess still see each other at the inn on moonlit nights, their love living on eternally after their death as symbolized by the love-knots she's tied in her hair. That love brought them to their deaths but it also reunited them afterward for eternity.
There are ominous descriptions throughout the poem, such as the wind being a "torrent of darkness" and the "Ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas" (galleon here refers to a kind of ship). This is all foreboding imagery that foreshadow the tragic end. A 'moral' or 'message' to the poem could be interpreted as greed, jealousy and vengeance lead to downfall and destruction, similar to the story of Rome and Juliet. It could be interpreted many different ways however.
I like the interpretation mentioned on Jan 24th, of a "dark and cloudy night as a time to be cherished and anticipated, while the dawn becomes a time of heart-break." The posting on March 25th on the metaphorical significance of the highwayman is an interesting take as well.

| Posted on 2009-05-18 | by a guest

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Hi, I need to do a summary of this poem for ELA and I DO NOT understand it. plz help!:D thnxx

| Posted on 2009-05-03 | by a guest

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I need to do an interview on a character in the poem "The Highwayman" can anyone help me on what character would be easier and what questions i sould use? thanks

| Posted on 2009-04-26 | by a guest

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I need to do an interview on a character in the poem "The Highwayman" can anyone help me on what character would be easier and what questions i sould use? thanks

| Posted on 2009-04-26 | by a guest

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what does stable wicket mean???? it is for my hw and it is due tmorrow helpme and i so love this poem i like watch it 6 times in 3 days well 5

| Posted on 2009-04-16 | by a guest

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The redcoats keep the landlord's daughter, Bess locked up. The Highwayman ("fancy-talk" for a robber) says he will come back to get her. The Highywayman and Bess love each other. Tim the Ostler knows about this and tells the Redcoats. Bess knows and kills herself for her love, the Highwayman. Then, the Redcoats shoot the Highwayman anyway. We discussed this poem in 6th grade English. Don't think too hard or it'll mess you up!

| Posted on 2009-04-13 | by a guest

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this story is about bess falling in love with a theif and when they try to meet again she shoots herself so that her love, the highwayman doesnt get killed. but he doesnt know who gets killed til the next day when he goes back to meet her and he gets killed as well. and all of this was because of the jealous osler, tim

| Posted on 2009-04-01 | by a guest

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Hey my little brother really needs help on a paper and ive been helping him out but i cant seem to find what the symbol of death is in this poem...all my answers are fine for high school but not so much for 7th grade english. its something obvious but i have a tendency to overthink things.please help!!!!
liz

| Posted on 2009-03-30 | by a guest

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If you read historical romance, you'll find that a highwayman is often described as an aristocrat fallen on hard time or a hero robbing from the rich to give to the poor. He is also often described as being very romantic. I believe that's why the author did not really judge him on what he does but focus more on the romantic aspect of it.

| Posted on 2009-03-25 | by a guest

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the 12 year old is a genius.
good job kid.
add me on facebook or myspace yo :)
hope x love to discuss poetry with you.

| Posted on 2009-03-16 | by a guest

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This is a lovely poem by Alfred Noyes. I really enjoyed it.

| Posted on 2009-03-06 | by a guest

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I think it was a great poem and hope the writers son writes another great poem.But it was a great poem and I liked it.

| Posted on 2009-03-04 | by a guest

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what do i say about the wind being a torrent of darkness??
Tenac

| Posted on 2009-03-01 | by a guest

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we did this in class at first I didnt get it but when we analyzed it the story was about 2 different people that is in love with each other, then there is a guy who likes the guy and overheard them talking ang grassed the guy to some police then when the highwayman was about to come back they tied up bess, then bess is trying to get the gun of the other police so that she can shoot herself, so that the guy can hear it then he can run away, then they found him and killed him, then in the end it says they will be together forever...

| Posted on 2009-02-24 | by a guest

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this story is kinda dum. She loves a man who is a criminal. She should have married a red coat.

| Posted on 2009-02-21 | by a guest

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Guys, this guy is dead, in case you haven't noticed.
I love bananas and The WIggles!

| Posted on 2009-02-17 | by a guest

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Could someone please tell me some symbols hat can come from this poem?

| Posted on 2009-02-11 | by a guest

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um ya ok so basically what this dude is trying to say is that there was this guy and his pretty little girlfriend and he was a cheese-head loser face and his girlfriend or lover if you wil.... ya well she got really ticked at him and died when he found out he spazzed and also died so the Highwayman is just really a cool remake of romeo and juliet except its not! latey cheese-heads!!! :D

| Posted on 2009-02-03 | by a guest

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I have to write an essay based on bess sacrafising herself for the one she loves, i need some help on what to write about , Please?
Heather

| Posted on 2009-01-27 | by a guest

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Alfred Noyes definitely uses the word "galleon" to mean a type of ship, not a coin, because of the context it is used in- "the moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas."
Only a ship would be tossed upon seas.
As well, Noyes' imagery is fantastic, how he perfects the art of "showing" and not "telling" the reader what is going on.

| Posted on 2009-01-24 | by a guest

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no, mate, the poem is about a robber and Bess who fall in love. then the 'stable boy' is so jealous that he tells the army, who then track her down and tie her to her bed. then they wait til the highwayman comes to see her and they kill Bess. the highwayman goes mental and so he kills himself as well.

| Posted on 2009-01-23 | by a guest