The highwayman- Alfred Noyes - building up atmosphere

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The Highwayman-critical essay

The poem “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes is an exhilarating and theatrical poem about love and betrayal. The poet uses four main themes in the poem, love, betrayal, loyalty and death each of these make your knowledge and understanding clearer when reading the poem. The variety of imagery Noyes uses creates an atmosphere, sets the scene and gives you a clearer picture in your head of what the characters look like and also gives you a better description of the noises you would hear. This makes the poem much more pleasurable for the person reading it.

“The Highwayman” is set in England and tells the story of a man who robs travellers of their most treasured possessions. This crook does not have a name and is known only as “the highwayman”. He is obviously wealthy as the poet describes how well dressed he is

“He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin”.

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The highwayman has a secret lover, whom he meets every night. Her name is Bess and she is the landlord’s daughter. However the ostler at the Inn, Tim, is also in love with Bess. He is uncontrollably jealous of the highwayman and tells the Redcoats from the army how they can seize him. The Redcoats set up an ambush, but Bess tragically dies while trying to warn her lover about the danger. Mad with grief, the highwayman gallops back to the Inn where he too, is shot down. The poem ends with the idea that the ghosts of the two ...

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