"The Highwayman" is a romantic ballad poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the August 1906 issue of Blackwood's Magazine, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The following year it was included in Noyes' collection, Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, becoming an immediate success. In 1995 it was voted 15th in the BBC's poll for "The Nation's Favourite Poems".
Plot
The poem, set in 18th-century rural England, tells the story of an unnamed highwayman who is in love with Bess, a landlord's daughter. Betrayed to the authorities by Tim, a jealous ostler, the highwayman escapes ambush when Bess sacrifices her life to warn him. Learning of her death, he dies 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.
Background
The poem was written on the edge of a desolate stretch of land known as Bagshot Heath, where Noyes, then aged 24, 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.
Literary qualities
The poem makes effective use of vivid imagery to describe surroundings; plus repetitious phrases to create the sense of a horseman riding at ease through the rural darkness to a lovers' tryst and soldiers marching down the same road to ambush him. "The Highwayman" is reputed to be "the best ballad poem in existence for oral delivery". Almost half a century later, Noyes wrote, "I think the success of the poem... was because it was not an artificial composition, but was written at an age when I was genuinely excited by that kind of romantic story."
Literary techniques
In this poem, uses a creative literary technique called “alliteration.” Alliteration is when a phrase has the same first letter in a row. For example, Noyes uses alliteration for “ghostly galleon” to create a distinctive feel. Noyes also uses refrains in “The Highwayman.” There are refrains in each stanza that seem to point out the main theme. Noyes uses two other elements in his poem called “genre” and “meter.” The genre of this poem seems to be a romance, but like Romeo and Juliet, the poem turns out to be a tragedy in the end. This poem can also be called a ballad, which is a story, often heroic or tragic, that usually includes refrains. This poem has a specific meter as well. He uses hexameter that mixes iambs and anapests.
In 1951, the poem was used as the basis for a feature-length Hollywood film of the same name, starring Philip Friend and Wanda Hendrix. Noyes writes in his autobiography that he was pleasantly surprised by "the fact that in this picture, produced in Hollywood, the poem itself is used and followed with the most artistic care".
In 1965, American folksinger Phil Ochs set the poem to music on his second album, "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore." His arrangement has since been covered by other musicians, as well.
