The Highwayman
PART I
Stanza 1
metaphor
repetition
Stanza 2
implied meaning
•”darkness among the gusty trees” = evil or death lurking
•”ghostly galleon” – foreshadows ghosts at the end of the story
•”purple moor” = surreal place (a place between real and unreal)
•3 metaphors create vivid imagery
-Wind is a torrent
-Moon is a galleon
-Road is a ribbon
•Riding – riding - riding
-Effect: imitates the rhythm of a galloping horse
-Effect: implies that he has been riding for a long time
•Highwayman has well-made clothing which implies success
-Lace at his chin (lace was a statement of style & wealth)
-French cocked hat (imported)
-Claret velvet implies wealth and that he is a passionate man
-“brown doe-skin” = fashionable clothing & man is a survivor
•Sparkling weapons
-implies the weapons are important to him / that they have value to
him
-implies that he takes good care of them / shines the metal regularly
Stanza 3
alliteration
onomatopoeia
Implied meaning
•”Dark inn-yard” = mysterious unknown
-foreshadows evil that will take place
•Over the cobble stones he clattered and clashed
•clattered clashed
•Highwayman noisy in the court yard
•Bess (the landlord’s daughter) is waiting for the Highwayman
•’plaiting a dark red love knot in her hair’
-She is deeply, passionately in love
-An intense love
•”black-eyed daughter”
-implies that she will look death in the face
•”long black hair” = she is the target of death
Stanza 4
“And dark in the dark inn-yard”
-emphasis on dark (repetition)
-foreshadowing some evil is about to happen
The Highwayman
implied meaning
simile
implied meaning
•Ostler is:
-white = unhealthy
-works at the inn tending the horses
-he is a madman (crazy)
-he is in love with the inn keeper’s daughter
-‘dumb as a dog’
-Bess’ red lips = love, health, passion, youth
Stanza 5
repetition
Stanza 6
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
simile
repetition
PART II
Stanza 7
tone
foreshadowing
repetition
repetition
foreshadowing
literal meaning
•Highwayman asks Bess for a kiss
•He is planning on robbing someone that night
-Plan is to be back by morning unless he is delayed by the ‘law’
•yellow gold = wealth
•’Look for me by moon light.’
Watch for me by moonlight
I’ll come to thee by moonlight’
-Effect: Sincerity or depth of promise to return
•Highwayman reaching up to Bess – could barely reach her hand
-represents Bess being beyond his reach (socially)
-intimates a higher class standing
•Bess let her hair down over the window casement
-her promise that she will be waiting for him when he comes back
•”black cascade” “black waves”
-final farewell; good-bye kiss before she is lost to death
•His face burnt like a brand
-his face turned red
-she branded him as hers (reference to love)
•’By moonlight’
-Effect: represents longing
•Tone changes from romantic (promises of love) to serious
•Change in tone signals an impending tragedy
•”tawny sunset”
-implies murky place; a place between black (wrong) and white (right)
•”purple moor”
-surreal place; a place between reality and fantasy
•Marching, marching, marching
-Effect: builds suspense
•’He did not come/he did not come’
-Effect: builds suspense
-Effect: builds reader’s expectation
•King George’s soldiers (red coat troop) are marching down the road
-something bad is about to happen
•soldiers’ coats are red
The Highwayman
implied meaning
Stanza 8
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
Stanza 9
literal meaning
implied meaning
-red represents blood, anger, death
•Soldiers took over inn
-drank the ale
-bound and gagged Bess
-disregarded the Landlord (didn’t talk to him
– he didn’t exist in their mind)
•”Death at every window”
-soldier with a gun at every window
-watching for the Highwayman and will shoot to kill
•”Hell at one dark window”
-only person in Hell is Bess
-Bess knows she is going to have to watch the man she loves get shot
and killed when he comes for her
•Bess is tied up – standing up (at attention)
•Gun is tied to her
-pointing at her chest
•Soldiers
-laughing at her/mocking and tormenting her
•Treatment of soldiers shows disrespect and infers that she may
mistreat her after they kill the Highwayman
Stanza 10
dilemma
•”stretched and strained in the darkness”
-darkness = unknown future or dark future
•Hours of struggle
-finally gets one finger on the trigger of the gun
•Two choices
-watch Highwayman die
-warn Highwayman by pulling trigger on the gun (killing self)
Stanza 11
repetition
Implied meaning
Stanza 12
literal meaning
implied meaning
•Didn’t struggle to get better hold on the gun
-didn’t want to draw attention to her finger or her intentions
•’In the moonlight’
-Effect: mimicking Highwayman’s words
-Effect: rhythm shows she’s waiting
-Effect: heart is racing (throbbed)
>throbbed shows a combination of fear – when bleeding it can
throb
>throbbing heart also shows the depth of her love
•Bess hears highwayman’s horse on the road
-she knows the sound of the Highwayman
-it is not the first time she has waited for him
The Highwayman
climax of the story
Stanza 13
climax of poem
literal
inferred
repetition
rhythm
literal
simile/inferred
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
Stanza 14
literal meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
•Bess isn’t sure if the soldiers hear the Highwayman
-soldiers look to their priming (person in charge/captain)
-shows they have seen the Highwayman – just looking for
confirmation that they are to shoot when told
•Frosty silence
-momentary pause before the action races to the ending (like holding
your breath before diving off the high dive)
-cold outside and it is quiet
-soldiers ignoring Bess (she is bait only)
>all eyes are on the Highwayman
-Bess is ignoring the soldiers
>her eyes are also searching for the Highwayman
•Emphasizes that everything has taken place in the moonlight
-initial meeting in the moonlight
-promise to return to Bess in the moonlight
-Bess waiting for the Highwayman in the moonlight
-Bess dying in the moonlight
•changes pace of story
-signals that a tragedy has taken place
-slows down the reading
-slow pace or rhythm equal sadness
•Bess sees the highwayman
-‘face was like a light’
-inference to heavenly goodness in Bess
>an act of goodness/pureness
>light = hope; it will be okay; the Highwayman
is coming; she will save the man she loves; she will die for a good
cause
•eyes widened
-recognition/anticipation that highwayman is coming
-realizes the moment is upon her/she knows what she has to do
-life is flashing before her
•drew deep breath
-resigned to fact she will die
•pulled trigger
•Highwayman heard shot
-turned horse around
-rode to the west (opposite direction of inn and Bess)
-did not know who died
-trying to avoid trouble (he had just stolen gold)
•At dawn, Highwayman finds out Bess died
•Highwayman’s face grew grey
-color drained out of highwayman’s face
-overcome by sadness because his love died
The Highwayman
literal meaning
tone of poem
allusion
literal
inferred
Stanza 15
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
literal meaning
implied meaning
foreshadowing
repetition
literal
change of tone
implied meanings
Stanza 16
inferred
repetition
•Highwayman learned Bess watched for her love in the moonlight
-‘had watched for her love in the moonlight’ = romantic tone
-‘and died in the darkness there’ = tragic love story
Subtle reference to Romeo and Juliet
•Bess ‘died in the darkness there’
-darkness means there is no hope
-Bess dies alone/without the man she loves
-No one near her cared
- Soldiers were heartless
•‘Back he spurred like a madman’ -he turned back east toward the inn
to see Bess
-spurred the horse repeatedly to make it go faster
-like a madman = not thinking clearly/blind anger/rage
•white road smoking behind him
-going so fast the dirt is kicking up
-sword waving over his head
•blood red were his spurs in the golden noon
-spurred horse so much it is bleeding/his spurs are covered in blood
-it is noon
•wine red coat symbolizes the highwayman’s rage
-a symbol of avenging his love
-a symbol of the danger that lies ahead
•red coat foreshadows the violence that is to come
-the blood that is going to replace the coat when he is shot down
•down on the highway, down like a dog on the highway, blood on the
highway
-Effect: to make the reader understand that there was no compassion;
he was killed as if he were an animal; no consideration for him as a
human
-killed and died like an animal (comparison to a dog is NOT a good
thing)
•a bunch of lace at his neck
-at the beginning of the poem “lace” was used to show he was rich
-at the end of the poem, “lace” is implying that wealth had no
meaning
-what mattered most in life was Bess – he lost her and so his money
meant nothing
-lace was useless to him
•’And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees’
-Highwayman’s ghost still rides the ribbon road to Bess
•Repetition of two beginning stanzas is done to show that
the Highwayman continues to visit Bess as a ghost
-still trying to fulfill his promise to return to her, his true love