The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes is a poem that follows the story of a young robber who falls in love with the daughter of a landlord who owns an inn on the highway. We learn the robber is one who robs gold whilst travelling around on his horse. As he still continues to visit Bess, his lover, he is having to make sure he lays low as he is being searched for. Although he fails when one of the kings loyal people overhears bess and the robber conversing and relays it all back to the king, in which causes the robber to be caught and trapped. In final attempt to free the robber, Bess shoots herself and the robber tries to escape. He fails once again and is shot and killed. In The Highwayman there are several themes that are prominent throughout …show more content…
We clearly see this happen with Bess and The Highwayman. It plays both the hero as it is what keeps the relationship between them strong but with that, it also plays the enemy, because it is what ends up causing Bess to shoot herself, and the Highwayman to get shot. Overall we learn that the power of love is much stronger than what we realise and it has the ability to make or break someones life. Although most are unaware, love is the cause for many of the other themes in the poem, as for Bess and the highwayman, it is love that is the reason for all their …show more content…
Towards the end of the first stanza we start to see the repetition of the moon and moonlight. Initially it creates just a setting that informs us of the time of day, but as it is mentioned more and more we come to realise that it actually is setting the atmosphere. Through the use of nature, Noyes has been able to create a very eerie feel throughout the poem, even when The Highwayman is killed, the moonlight is still written about whilst his ghost wonders, looking for Bess, perhaps even, the early on mention of the moon is a foretelling of the death of The