Analysis of "The Highwayman" written by Alfred Noyes

by eisanhashmi (student)

CRITICAL ESSAY “THE HIGHWAYMAN”

The title of the poem is called The Highwayman written by Alfred Noyes.

This poem is set in the past during the time of King George. The main characters in this poem are The Highwayman and Bess The plot of this poem is about two lovers who encounter and meet death in unfortunate and unforeseen events. These events are triggered by a character called Tim the ostler depicted by the poet as an extremely jealous and stupid lover of Bess. The two lovers risk their lives for each other. This poem is a tragic tale of love, jealousy and bravery.

The poet uses a number of techniques to create action, drama, passion and tension. In the first stanza the poet focuses on setting the scene with particular attention given to the mood and atmosphere creating both action and tension. Firstly, he uses ‘metaphors’ to do this such as, ‘torrent of darkness’, ‘ghostly galleon’ and ‘ribbon of moonlight’ to help create a vivid image of mystery,’ coldness and death. The poet creates the connectedness between atmosphere and mood with the horrid deaths of The Highwayman and Bess.

This is evident as further on in the poem, “… death at every window”, suggests that there was no hope for Bess. Instead, she would have to sacrifice her life in order to save her lover. This is further reinforced by “and hell at one dark window”, further suggesting that Bess’s life was near ending. Furthermore, the simile “… down like a dog”, suggests the horrid death of The Highwayman as the kings men hunted him showing no remorse. Here the poet creates the horrific image of death; death that compared to an animal being hunted down.

Secondly, poet uses ‘similes’ throughout as another technique to help further develop a clear and concise image of the events almost like a moving picture. Similes help to explain things, to express emotions and to make the writing more vivid and entertaining.

Similes such as ‘hair like mouldy hay’ and ‘dumb as a dog’ in stanza four, gives insight to the villain’s physical and mental traits. Tim the ostler is being criticised by the poet, as he makes a comparison of Tim with that of an animal. He gives him the mental intelligence of a dog, which is virtually little or none at all. The metaphor already mentioned ‘hollows of madness’, further suggests Tim as being a mad, crazy and raging animal. It further suggests that Tim has lost his human senses as he is poisoned with jealousy and rage.

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Thirdly the poet uses “repetition” as another technique to create a sense of rhythm. It heightens the emotional impact of events. “Riding, riding, riding” in stanza one suggests The Highwayman’s eagerness and longing desire to meet his lover. This makes the line appear more important than other parts of the poem.

Further more “twinkle, twinkle”, in stanza two could be interpreted in two different ways. Firstly, it could be interpreted as the reflection of moonlight upon the Highwayman and secondly it could be interpreted as his riches from the robberies made in his lifetime.

‘Moonlight, moonlight…’ is repeated greatly throughout the whole poem. The poet elaborates on this particular word because it is crucial not only to emphasis the atmosphere and mood but also the events leading to the lover’s deaths. It brings ‘darkness’ throughout the poem.

The last two stanzas in the poem are a repetition of the first two stanzas.

This is purposely done to strengthen the rhythmic structure giving fluency.

In addition to this, it overall gives the reader a sense of the two lovers still longing for each other despite being dead.

In conclusion, the use of the three techniques explained helps the poet to create a real life moving image creating true like characters and events. These techniques help the reader to engage emotionally with a feeling of anger, sorrow and with a feeling of justice and injustice. The poet gets the reader to think about whether justice was done to Bess. Some may argue that she knew of the affairs of her lover and therefore had to live the consequences of her decision. The poet further helps us take on each of the characters in role making us see their perspective more clearly. This helps the reader to make up their own decisions about each of the characters.

In the end, The Highwayman lived a violent life and died a violent death which he deserves. Also because of him the landlord’s daughter had an unfortunate violent death too. They had love for each other and because of Bess’s loyalty to The Highwayman, she sacrificed her own life. The repeating stanzas at end gives the reader the sense that although their lives have ended horridly their love lives on forever.

Notes notes notes

Another technique the poet uses is his choice of adjectives such as ‘gusty trees’, ‘cloudy seas’ and ‘purple moor’ adding effective detail to imagery.

He also makes reference to ‘frosty silence’ and ‘echoing night’

The poet continues to use metaphors throughout the poem. In stanza four, ‘his eyes were hollows of madness’ and ‘the road was a gypsy’s ribbon…’ in the seventh stanza continues to maintain a sense of suspense and thrill.

The repeated use of the word ‘moonlight’ throughout plays a significance part to linking not only with the atmosphere, mood or setting the scene but also with death and sorrow. These seem to be intertwined. This is evident in stanza three and four as the moonlight is crucially linked with Bess’s death but somewhat also linked with hope, ‘her face was like light!’, her eyes grew wide for a moment’ but this hope was followed by sorrow.

At this moment of death the poet quotes ‘hours crawled by like years’ which suggests the stillness, coldness, and long waiting for her love to rescue her. This waiting was ended by ‘the tip of one finger touched it!’ and ‘shattered her breast in the moonlight’. In conclusion to this, stanza one is repeated at the end emphasising the continuous importance of the relationship between atmosphere, mood and grim events, in this case the death of both.

The author uses a lot of imagery to describe what is happening in the poem.

The three techniques that I am going to write about are similes, metaphors, and repetition.

The author uses many similes in the poem, this is usually used to personify (make personal to the reader) a phrase and can help the reader sustain a better understanding of the story.

The phrase used “Dumb as a dog” to describe Tim the Ostler when he is listening to the conversation between the Highwayman and Bess suggests that Tim was not a clever man and was unable to understand the consequences of his actions by telling the troops of the highwayman coming to the inn that night. This shows us that Tim was dumb not to realise he was also putting Bess’s life in danger when the troops came to capture the highwayman.

When the Highwayman whistled a tune to let Bess know he had arrived at the inn, Bess tied a “dark red love-knot into her long black hair”. This gives an image of her red heart which implies she is showing her love to the Highwayman without saying a word.

“His hair mouldy like hay”. This image tells us that Tim’s hair was not clean and that he did not take care of his appearance.

The author uses metaphors throughout the poem giving vivid images of the events happening.

Bess is waiting for the Highwayman to come and is waiting for a prize from him. He did not come at sunrise, he did not come at noon, or sunset, or the rise of the moon. “When the road was a gipsy ribbon, looping the purple moon.” This suggests that when the troops came out at night, as they marched down the road towards the inn, that their red uniform made them look like red ribbons on the road. As they went round the moor that from a distance their uniform changed colour from red to purple. Metaphors help me because they give me an image of the situation.

The Highwayman and Bess are dead. is a saying that on a winters night when a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, when the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor. The Highwayman comer riding, riding. “This suggests that the Highwayman was riding up to the old inn door. Riding, Riding, Riding. This suggests that the Highwayman was riding on his horse for an extremely long time. The Highwayman was coming nearer and nearer to Bess. Her face shined as a sign of danger. She held the gun in her hand and pulled the trigger and warned him with her death. “Moonlight, moonlight.” This suggests that Bess was moving her fingers in the moonlight. Her musket destroyed the moonlights light. When the Highwayman found out that Bess was dead, he was riding on his horse and chasing after the troops he was consumed with grief and rage. He held up his sword to attack them, even though he knew that they were going to kill him. “Highwayman, Highwayman.” This suggests that the troops shot the Highwayman at the highway. Down like a dog suggests that the troops had no respect for him, by chasing after him, and shooting at the Highwayman. It suggests that the troop’s intention had been to shoot the Highwayman and not to let him live. Repetition helps me to effect, either to get a point across, emphasize something, or signal distress/tension, but it depends on what is being repeated.