The Highwayman

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The Highwayman

• Alfred Noyes

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• "The Highwayman" is a narrative poem
• written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the
• August 1906 issue of Blackwood's
• Magazine. The following year it was
• included in Noyes' collection, Forty Singing
• Seamen and Other Poems, becoming an
• immediate success.

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Plot

• The poem, set in 18th century England, tells the
• story of a nameless highwayman who is in love
• with Bess, a landlord's (innkeeper) daughter.
• Betrayed to the authorities by a jealous ostler
• (stableman), the highwayman escapes ambush
• when Bess sacrifices her life to warn him.
  Learning
• of her death he dies himself in a futile attempt
  at
• revenge, shot down on the highway. In the final
• stanza, the ghosts of the lovers meet again on
• winter nights.

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Background

• The poem was written on the edge of a desolate
• stretch of land in West Surrey known as Bagshot
• Heath, where Noyes, then aged twenty-four, had
• taken rooms in a cottage.
• In his autobiography, he recalled "Bagshot Heath
• in those days was a wild bit of country, all
  heather
• and pinewoods. The Highwayman suggested itself
• to me one blustery night when the sound of the
• wind in the pines gave me the first line." The
  poem
• was completed in about two days.

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Literary Qualities

• The poem makes effective use of vivid imagery for
  the background and of repetitious phrases to
  create the sense of a horseman riding at ease
  through the rural darkness to a lovers' tryst or
  of soldiers marching down the same road to ambush
  him.
• "The Highwayman" is reputed to be "the best
  narrative poem in existence for oral delivery".
• Almost half a century later, Noyes wrote "I
  think the success of the poem...was due to the
  fact that it was not an artificial composition,
  but was written at an age when I was genuinely
  excited by that kind of romantic story."

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Vocabulary

• Moor- n. a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often
  overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes
  and altitudes where drainage is poor heath.
• Rapier- n. a small sword, especially of the 18th
  century, having a narrow blade and used for
  thrusting.
• Hilt- n. the handle of a sword or dagger.
• Plaiting- n. anything that is braided or pleated.
  
• Wicket- n. a window or opening, often closed by a
  grating or the like, as in a door, or forming a
  place of communication in a ticket office, a
  teller's cage in a bank, etc.

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Vocabulary

• Ostler- n. a stableman, especially one at an inn
• Harry- v. (used with object) 1. to harass, annoy,
  or prove a nuisance to by or as if by repeated
  attacks worry He was harried by constant doubts
• Casement- n. a window sash opening on hinges that
  are generally attached to the upright side of its
  frame.
• Jest- n. a joke or witty remark witticism
• Priming- n. the powder or other material used to
  ignite a charge.
• Brandish- v. (used with object) to shake or wave,
  as a weapon

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Romantic

• Adjective
• 1. of, pertaining to, or of the nature of
  romance characteristic or suggestive of the
  world of romance a romantic adventure.
• 2. fanciful impractical unrealistic romantic
  ideas.
• 3. imbued with or dominated by idealism, a desire
  for adventure, chivalry, etc.

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Highwayman

• noun, plural -men.
• (formerly) a holdup man, especially one on
  horseback, who robbed travelers along a public
  road.

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King George III

• Ruler of Great Britain from 1760-1820
• Succeeded his father, King George II
• Hero to Great Britain (Loyalists)
• Evil Tyrant to the Colonies (Patriots)

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• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Highwayman_(poem)