The Highwayman

Janet
Published on October 20, 2014

The Highwayman By Alfred Noyes Narrative Poems Poems that are written to tell a story are called narrative poems. These story poems resemble short stories. They have a plot, characters, and a setting. Stories sung to the strumming of a stringed instrument are probably the oldest form of storytelling. Modern poems like this one use strong rhythms to make their stories sound like the old sung stories. They capture the enduring power of the spoken word. Background The highwayman in this famous poem is a robber who lived in England in the 1700s. Highwaymen used to stop stagecoaches on the lonely moorlands of northern England and Scotland and rob the rich passengers of money and jewels. Some highwaymen were considered heroes by the Scots because they shared the money with the poor. Highwaymen were often romantic swashbuckling figures who dressed in expensive clothes. The poem is based on a true story that the poet heard while he was on vacation in that part of England where highwaymen used to lie in wait for stagecoaches.