"The Highwayman" is a narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the August 1906 issue of Blackwood's Magazine. The following year it was included in Noyes' collection, Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, becoming an immediate success.
Contents |
The poem, set in 18th century England, tells the story of a nameless highwayman who is in love with Bess, a landlord's (innkeeper) daughter. Betrayed to the authorities by Tim, a jealous ostler (stableman), the highwayman escapes ambush when Bess sacrifices her life to warn him. Learning of her death he dies himself in a futile attempt at revenge, shot down on the highway. In the final stanza, the ghosts of the lovers meet again on winter nights
The poem makes effective use of vivid imagery for the background and of repetitious phrases to create the sense of a horseman riding at ease through the rural darkness to a lovers' tryst or of soldiers marching down the same road to ambush him.
"The Highwayman" is reputed to be "the best narrative poem in existence for oral delivery".[1]
Almost half a century later, Noyes wrote: "I think the success of the poem...was because it was not an artificial composition, but was written at an age when I was genuinely excited by that kind of romantic story".
The poem was adapted as a cantata for mixed voices and orchestra by American composer Deems Taylor in 1914, first performed at the MacDowell Festival, Peterborough, N.H., with E.G. Hood as director, and the famous baritone Reinald Werrenrath, as soloist.
In 1933, a setting of the poem for chorus (SATB) and small orchestra by the English composer C. Armstrong Gibbs received its first performance at Winchester College Music School.[2]
In 1951, the poem was used as the basis for a feature-length Hollywood film of the same name, starring Philip Friend and Wanda Hendrix.[3] Noyes writes in his autobiography that he was pleasantly surprised by "the fact that in this picture, produced in Hollywood, the poem itself is used and followed with the most artistic care".
In 1965, Phil Ochs composed a musical interpretation and recorded the poem (missing out a few verses) set to this music on his second album I Ain't Marching Anymore.
In 1979, UK singer-songwriter John Otway performed a version of the poem set to a musical backdrop, for his album Where Did I Go Right.
In 1981, British illustrator Charles Keeping produced a version of the poem that received the Kate Greenaway Medal (given for an outstanding work of illustration in children's literature).
The video of the 1988 Fleetwood Mac song "Everywhere" is a visual depiction of the Noyes poem.
In 1997, Loreena McKennitt used an adapted version of the poem (three verses were omitted) for track #5, "The Highwayman", in her album The Book of Secrets. Her setting of the poem has been covered by Irish musician Andy Irvine.
In 2002, the American author Deborah Ballou published The Highwayman: A Novel Inspired by Alfred Noyes' Poem.
The Scottish children's author Nicola Morgan used the poem as the background for her historical novels, The Highwayman's Footsteps[4] and The Highwayman's Curse, published in 2006 and 2007 respectively.