Summary of 

The Highwayman
‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes is a gothic narrative of tells of the story of
the highwayman, the red coats who wanted to capture him, and his lover. 
The poem details the love affair going on between the highwayman and the
landlord’s daughter Bess. Their love is pure and strong. He rides into the inn in
the middle of the night to tell her that he’s going robbing and will come back
the next day no matter what. Unfortunately for both of them, in the meantime
soldiers come and set a trap for him. 

Bess is able to escape from where they tied her up and in an act of
desperation, she kills herself as he rides up the road. The shot warns him that
something is wrong and he runs. But, when he finds out what has happened
he returns, is shot dead, and then reunited with Bess in the afterlife. 

You can read the full poem here.

Structure of The Highwayman

‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes is a three-part poem that is divided into
one set of six stanzas, another of nine, and a final concluding two stanza
section. The stanzas are all six lines long, known as sestets. The sestets follow a
simple rhyme scheme of AABCCB, changing end sounds from stanza to stanza
as the poet saw fit. 

The meter is a little more complicated. There are six sets of two beats per line,
known as hexameter. But the stress, or emphasis, moves. Sometimes Noyes
uses anapaests and sometimes he uses iambs. 
 

Poetic Techniques in The Highwayman

Noyes makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘The Highwayman’. These
include, but are not limited to, alliteration, metaphor, and enjambment. The first,
alliteration, occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close
together, and begin with the same sound. This technique appears numerous
times throughout the poem. For example, “landlord,” “lipped,” and “love” in
the last lines of stanza three of part I. 

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things that does not use “like”
or “as” is also present in the text. When using this technique a poet is saying
that one thing is another thing, they aren’t just similar. Noyes uses three in the
first stanza of ‘The Highwayman’. He compares the moon and wind to the sea,
and the road to “a ribbon of moonlight”. 

Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It

occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment
forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move
forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. For example,
the transition between lines one and two of the fourth stanza of part I. 

Analysis of The Highwayman 

Part I 
Stanza One 
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.
(…)
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
In the first stanza of ‘The Highwayman,’ the speaker begins by describing “The
wind,” “The moon,” and “The road”. Noyes uses metaphors to outline what
each of these is like. The wind is a “torrent of darkness,” alluding to the
movements of a river or other powerful, moving body of water. In the second
line he compares the moon to a “ghostly galleon” that appears like a
“galleon,” or large ship, that’s being “tossed upon the clouds”. This brings the
image of water into the poem again. 

The third metaphor compares the road to a “ribbon of moonlight” that is

running over the “purple moor”. The road is an important part of the poem
that plays a major role later on. It appears shining in amongst the previous
darker images. 

Along the road comes the main character of the poem, the highwayman.
Noyes uses repetition to emphasize the movement of the man and his horse.
He is “riding— / “Riding—riding—“. He comes all the way up to the “inn”.

Stanza Two 

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,

(…)
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
In the second stanza, the description of the highwayman begins. He has a
“French cocked-hat on his forehead” and “a bunch of lace at his chin”. These
phrases refer to his fancy clothes and the lace that’s poking out from the top
of his shirt. There are no wrinkles, nor could there ever be, in his pants and he
has a “jewelled twinkle” about him. He is shining with importance. The word
“twinkle” is used three times in the last three lines to describe his pistols,
rapier, and general aspect. 

Stanza Three 

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

(…)
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Noyes makes use of alliteration in the first line of the third stanza in order to
mimic the sound of the highwayman’s movements over the cobblestones. He
taps on the shutters but there is no answer. Everything is “locked and barred”.
Instead, he decides to whistle, and luckily for him the “landlord’s black-eyed
daughter, / Bess” shows up. She is braiding her hair and she comes out to see
him. There is a “dark red love-knot” in her hair that is added in a symbol of her
love and the relationship to the man.

Stanza Four 

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

(…)
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—
The fourth stanza introduces the third character into the poem, “Tim the
ostler”. He’s the man who takes care of the horses and he’s listening to this
meeting. He has a white face, eyes that make him appear insane or mad, and
“hair like mouldy hay”. This is just one example of the powerful imagery that
Noyes makes use of throughout this poem. 

He, like the highwayman, loves the daughter of the landlord. He listened,
eavesdropping, on what the two talk about. There is a great contrast drawn
between the lovely daughter, the fancy and confident highwayman, and Tim.

Stanza Five

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,

(…)
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”
The second to last stanza of this section of the poem contains the words of
the highwayman. He’s going to go “after a prize to-night”. This means that he
has some robbing that he plans on accomplishing that night, and then he’ll be
back with the sunrise”. His actions and life are clearly romanticized by the
poet. 

The highwayman knows, and tells Bess, that the law might “press” and follow
him “through the day” and the night. If this is the case, then he’s going to wait
until night to come and see her again. But, he is determined even if “hell
should bar the way” to get there. No matter what, he’ll come back. 
Stanza Six 

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand,

(…)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the
west.
The sixth stanza describes his actions once more. He tries to reach up and
touch her and he can just barely. The two are separated by their distance but
come together through their mutual love. She lets down her hair and he
blushes at the scent of her. He kisses her hair in the darkness of the night. The
word “moonlight” is used three lines in this stanza, emphasizes light but also
darkness. It helps to create a specific atmosphere for these events to play out
in. 

The last line describes him riding off “to the west” in order to accomplish what
he needs to. He goes into the “west,” not a good symbol for one who wants to
come back. The “west” is often used to represent death and the afterlife as
that is the direction in which the sun sets. 

Part II
Stanza One 

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

(…)
King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
The second section of ‘The Highwayman’ begins with the statement “He did
not come in the dawning”. When the sun rose he wasn’t there as he intended
to be. Nor was he there at noon or at the setting of the sun. This is not a good
sign, especially considering the determination he showed in the previous
stanzas. 

The speaker notices that rather than the highwayman come up the road he
sees “a red-coat troop marching”. They resemble a “gypsy’s ribbon” of red
coming across the moor. They are “King George’s men” and come right up to
the “old inn-door”. 

Stanza Two

They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead.
(…)
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.
The men do not talk to the landlord as they probably should but they do drink
his ale. They “gagged his daughter” and “bound her” to the narrow bed. These
are the villains of the story, men who are certainly going to throw a wrench in
the happy relationship that played out in the previous stanzas. The men are
setting up an ambush, waiting for the highwayman to return. 

There is “hell at every window,” meaning that from any the highwayman could
be shot and killed. Terribly, Bess can see out a window the exact spot her lover
will return. 
Stanza Three 

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest.

(…)
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!
The men “snigger” and joke as they do their job. They are pleased with
themselves and cruel taunt the young woman. Bess’s mind is on her “doomed
man” who she recalls saying “Watch for me by moonlight”. She knows that he
could come at any moment. 

Stanza Four 

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
(…)
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
In the fourth stanza, the narrator describes how Bess tries to twist her hands
out of the ropes. She struggles, but she does get free. Rather than escape
from the room, she decides she’s going to reach for a gun. The “trigger at
least was hers!” the last line declares. 

Stanza Five 

The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest.
(…)
And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her
love’s refrain.
Bess gets up, has the gun, and has it pressed to her breast. She moves as
quietly as possible, trying to keep the men from hearing her. She “would not
strive again,” the third line says. 

Noyes repeats the word “moonlight” three times again in this stanza. There is
also a good example alliteration with the repetition of words beginning with
“b”. There is a focus in the last lines on the beating of Bess’s heart and the
blood in her veins. 

Stanza Six 

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horsehoofs ringing clear;

(…)
The red coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still.
In the sixth stanza, there is the sound of “horsehoofs ringing clear”. They’re
coming up the path, from the distance, just as Bess and the soldiers predicted.
But, it does not appear that the soldiers realize what the sound is. 

The highwayman is riding up the road again just as he did in the first stanzas.
There is again an emphasis on the word “riding”. Finally, the redcoats realized
what was happening. Bess is prepared to put into action her plan. 

Stanza Seven 

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

(…)
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her
death.
The tension is building in these lines as the poem reaches its climax. Still, it is
unclear what Bess is trying to do. It is in the last lines of this stanza that that
becomes clear. She decides to shoot herself in the breast in order to “warn…
him—with her death”. This is the action of a very desperate person. 

Stanza Eight 

He turned. He spurred to the west; he did not know who stood

(…)
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness
there.
It was at the sound of the gunshot that he runs, back to the west from which
he came. He doesn’t know what it was, but the narrator does and the scene is
a gruesome one. 

It was the next day that he heard what had happened. His “face grew grey to
hear” that his lover had died. 

Stanza Nine 

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

(…)
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his
throat.
The highwayman goes back to the inn the next day after hearing what
happened to Bess. He’s terribly angry and feels as though he should take
revenge. He rides and curses the sky. The highwayman also has his sword at
the ready, prepared to kill the red coats her caused her death. 

The highwayman, as one might expect, is killed by the soldiers at the inn. He
goes “Down like a dog on the highway”. The white lace turns red at his throat. 

Conclusion 
Stanza One

And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
(…)
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
The last two stanzas of the poem are in italics, symbolizing that they come
after the main events outlined in part I and part II. These lines describe how
after the events of the poem that the ghosts of the two lovers still reappear
around the inn. When the “wind is in the trees” and the environment is in the
right state, as it was at the beginning of the poem. The highwayman comes
back as he used to. 
Stanza Two 

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

(…)
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Just like in the past, when the two were alive, he tries to get into the inn. These
lines are almost word for word those that came at the beginning of the poem.
Bess is there just as she used to be, except now they are both dead. This is a
hopeful and warm image at the end of the poem. 

QUESTION ANSWER
How has the poet described the night the highwayman
come riding?
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door. In this stanza, Noyes
introduces his readers to the protagonist of his story – a highwayman. He
describes how it was a story night, when the wind flew through the leaves of
trees and created a murmuring sound in the process.

How did the highwayman dressed?

At the beginning of the poem, the highwayman is dressed in claret velvet,
which is a blood-red velvet, and Bess is a red-lipped daughter who is plaiting
a “dark red love knot into her long black hair.”
According to Alfred Noyes, a highwayman would wear a French-cocked hat, a
bunch of lace at his collar, a claret (red) velvet coat, brown doe-skin breeches,
and thigh-high boots. He would also be armed with a rapier and pistols.
How do we know that the highwayman was in a good mood?
Why was he in a good mood?
The highwayman's attitude at the beginning of the poem is jaunty
and confident, in line with his debonair appearance. He whistles a
tune at the window and asks Bess for a kiss as soon as she appears.
He then reveals one of the reasons for this good mood.

What did the highwayman tell Bess?

The highwayman tells Bess that he's going out to make a robbery, but should
be back before morning. He promises her that, even if he has to go on the
run, he'll return to her the next night: I'll come to thee by moonlight, though
hell should bar the way!

Why did the soldiers arrive? How did they treat Bess?
The solider arrived because they want to chase the highwayman. They tied Bess with rope
and made fun of her by saying "Look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight,I'll come
to thee by moonlight ,though hell should bar the way !"

Why did Bess try to free herself desperately?

A jealous ostler (person who works in the stable) who is in love with Bess
reports the highwayman to the army. When they come to ambush him, Bess
kills herself to warn him and save his life. When he hears about the way she
died, he becomes very angry and is shot down on the highway.

How does Bess die?

Bess is tied up with a gun at her chest, and she wriggles
around until she has her finger on the trigger. Then, when she
hears the highwayman's horse, she fires the gun, and gives her
life to warn him about the ambush.

What role did tim the ostler play in the death of the
highwayman?
Tim the ostler was responsible for Bess's death because he
loved her and was jealous of Bess and the highwayman's
relationship; he wanted Bess all for himself. He listened when
the highwayman was talking to Bess and formulated a plan.