The Highway ManBy Alfred Noyes

Analysis

Author: Alfred Noyes

Date Written: 1906

Title: The Highwayman

Paraphrase: a romantic poem about a woman sacrificing her life for her criminal lover's safety. Addresses social phenomenon

Speaker: Narrator

Audience: The Reader

Purpose: Recounting an old romance/ghost story

Setting: 18th century England

Preliminary Details

VocabularyTorrent - heavy flow

Galleon - ship

Claret - bright red

Rapier Hilt - base of a sword

Wicket - entrance gate

Ostler - stable an

Musket - gun with a long barrel

DictionDiction contributes to the dark and spooky atmosphere

"Wind" sets the intense and chaotic tone

"Moonlight" makes the setting eerie and romantic

The description of the highwayman riding the 3rd stanza shows he lives a dangerous and action-filled life

Mostly concrete, but some abstract

Tone & Shift

Tone: romantic, spooky, intense

The tone changes from romantic and warm, to worried and tense

The mood changes from majestic and hopeful to sorrow and sadness

FormNarrative Poem

Closed Form

6 line stanzas

End Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB

Internal rhyme: "wet with sweat"

4th and 5th line of every stanza are similar

Poetic Devices

Allusion - "King George's men came marching"

Alliteration - "Ghostly galleon", "breeches of brown"

Consonance - "press me sharply S", "Harry me through"

Onomatopoeia - "tlot-tlot", "clattered and clashed", "whistled"

Poetic DevicesMetaphors - "the wind was a torrent of darkness", "the moon was a ghostly galleon", "the road was a ribbon of moonlight"

Simile - "dumb as a dog", "hair like mouldy hay", "face burnt like a brand"

Repetition - repetition in 4th and 5th line of every stanza, 1st and 3rd stanza repeats at the end

Hyperbole - "hours crawled by like years" (Personification)

SymbolsRed = violence, passion

Road = danger, excitement

Inn = safety, comfort, quiet

Love Knot = youth, young love

Yellow Gold = victory, freedom

Moonlight = secrecy

Musket = sacrifice, warning

King George's Men = death, destruction, captivity

Theme

To die to save another is the greatest sacrifice of love that one can offer.