1. Do a google search and find the poem “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. Read this poem
carefully.
2. In a Word document, please answer the following questions:
a. First, define the words below that are in bold print.
b. Find three similes from the poem.
c. Find two metaphors from the poem.
d. Find three onomatopoetic words from the poem.
e. Find one example of assonance.
f. Find one example of alliteration.
g. Find one example of homoioteleuton.
h. Look at the last words of each line in two stanzas and identify the rhyme scheme of this
poem.
3. Read this article on romanticism in literature and then, in a well-developed paragraph, explain
why this poem is considered romantic. You can skim through most of the article, but focus on
the sections “Other Concepts: Emotion, Lyric Poetry, and the Self,” “Contrasts with
Neoclassicism,” and “Individualism: The Romantic Hero.”
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html
4. In a well-developed paragraph, write what you imagine was going through Bess’s head as soon
as she heard the highway man trotting down the road. What was she thinking? Consider the
decision she had to make.
5. Write a newspaper article detailing the events of the story. This article should be objective,
displaying no opinion or slant as to whether or not you liked the poem.
6. Write the story in the poem as a ghost story, something like you would tell around a campfire on
a spooky night.
7. Read a peer’s story/article and give feedback by identifying one section that is especially good
and one section that needs improvement. Offer a suggestion as to how your partner can
improve the section you choose. Handwrite your feedback on your partner’s paper. Rewrite the
section using your peer’s suggestion as guidance OR write a paragraph explaining why you
decline the suggestion. Remember to be civil with this exercise.
8. What is the time setting for this poem? How do you know?
9. Who were highwaymen? What did they do?
10. Who do you think told the Redcoats how to find the highwayman? Why do you think this?
11. Find a picture of how you think the highwayman was dressed. Copy and paste the picture in
your document. Be sure to cite the source of your picture.
12. Choose ten terms/words from the poem that you aren’t sure of the definition and define them.