“The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes

The poem under analysis is “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. Alfred Noyes was an English poet best known for his ballads, “The Highwayman” and “The Barrel-Organ”. This poem is another great story poem about star-crossed lovers. “The Highwayman” has a pattern of AABCCB. This pattern continues through every paragraph throughout the poem. The sThis poem depicts how two opposite people try to be together but outside forces push them away and prevent them from being together. “The Highwayman” stands for guys with a life of crime trying to get by and he finds this girl that changes his whole life and he tries showing it but never gets the chance to show her before she is taken from him. Noyes has great rhyming words to describe how the characters are feeling and what they look like and how they are feeling at the moments. This really shows when he is showing how the landlord’s daughter is feeling and knowing what she has to do to save her love. My opinion of this poem is that this is a great star-crossed story of two lovers who try making it work and end up being separated by outside forces. Alfred Noyes to me expresses the feeling of waiting for a loved one to return and then their loved one being killed.  

The link to the poem is www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html