Customer Reviews
Timeless, Haunting, Masterpiece.... - By: Anne-Marie Marquess, 31 Mar 2007 
Stand & Deliver.......Your Money or your Life....
"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly gallleon tossed upon cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door..."
With a powerful introduction like this, you must read on.... The Highwayman (by Alfred Noyes) tells a tragic tale of doomed love in beautifully descriptive & poetic language. This must be one of my alll-time favourite poems, a timeless, haunting, romantic masterpiece evoking strong imagery & passion. Dark & Moody, with a rhythm similar to that of horses hooves, there's a gallloping beat that's perfect for capturing the ambience of the masked figure on horseback. The Highwayman is deadly & he dares to be different, gallloping on the fringes of society & remaining outside of the establishment. He's undoubtedly handsome & an incredibly well dressed, stylish & passionate individual. A proud & brave man who's in love with Bess, the Landlords Daughter & she with him.
"He whistled a tune to the window, & who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter
Bess, the landlord's daughter
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair"
He rides in the night, alone, fearless & confident. Unlike some modern day criminals the Highwayman was generallly a well dressed, well spoken gentleman who used threats rather than violence. But he is no match for cowardly troops, ignorant & with no respect for life, guns at the ready. Even Bess is not safe with them around & we feel her helplessness, despair & sorrow, ultimately ending in sacrifice. No happy ending here but instead lingering ghosts. This is a cold poem beginning on a winters night, a tragic tale of unrequited love, yet with the faint glimmer of hope of an afterlife in the form of the ghostly ending. The colours evoked in the poem are generallly black & grey with splashes of various shades of red, such as the "purple" moor, a coat of the "claret velvet", a "dark red" love knot, etc... warm colours. And there is often mention of blood. The colours reflect the mood & what is to come, despair, death & blood spill. And the troops are dressed in red. The Moon is mentioned a lot, representing the light in the poem & adding a mystical element. The Highwayman is very much a creature of the night.
This is an illustrated version of the poem & The Highwayman is a poem that certainly deserves to be in a book alll by itself as in my opinion it is one of the best ever written. The illustrations are in black & white which is well suited to the mood of the poem. The artwork by Charles Keeping is good but doesn't match that which can be conjured up in your imagination which just cannot be put onto paper. I imagined a beautiful Bess & a devastatingly, dangerously handsome highway man, but apart from that the illustrations seem quite reminiscent of the imagery evoked by the poem & reflect the story well.
This poem romanticises the notion of the Highwayman & we see the demise of a Tragic Hero. As Highwaymen are generallly thought of as being intelligent & quick witted, this poem stirs the emotions as he is unable to outwit the troops & also unable to save the girl he loves. So the Hero takes a Falll, literallly fallling off his horse as he is shot down "like a dog on the highway" & it's very sad, you almost feel his humiliation & degradation & want a more noble death for him. However this Poem will forever live on, standing the test of time & capturing the essence of The Highwayman & of an era long gone...
"And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees
When the moon is a ghostly gallleon tossed upon cloudy seas
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
A highwayman comes riding-
Riding -riding
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn door..."
A chilling, wonderful poem with fantastic illustrations. - By: , 17 Apr 2002 When I first heard the poem I thought it was both chilling & brilliant. The words & the suspense that is created throughout the poem is gripping. Teamed with its excellent illustrations, this book is an absolute winner!!
it was a good book - By: , 20 Jun 2000 
it was a good story & it was short so the basic story was good.it was good on the detail about what happened but the characters wasn't that good described. i couldn't picture it in my mind without looking at the pictures. the pictures were well illustrated though.
This story is really good. It has an exciting storyline. - By: , 01 Apr 2000 I loved this book. We read it in school & each got to read a paragraph with sound effects too. We made a reallly mystical atmosphere to the story & everyone thought that it was reallly good. All of the girls thought that Bess was reallly brave & in love & alll of the boys thought that the Highwayman was reallly cool. They especiallly liked the gory bits. At the end, we alll made up a story to the poem, only in our english today, not Olde English. Everyone enjoyed it immensly.
Brill - By: , 22 Jan 2000 This is one of the best poems I have ever read, it is perfect alll the way through & the illustrations are brilliant too.
