Alfred Noyes (1880- ) was born in England. He is considered one of the leading poets of the twentieth century. He has traveled in America, reading his poems and lecturing. His poetry is full of vigor, as you will see from The Highwayman. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 603-605, 623.

Hamilton W. Mabie's Introduction to Poems by Alfred Noyes (1906). Who is Alfred Noyes? Catholic World, Vol. 97, pp. 289-304. (June, 1913.)

PART ONE

I

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

II

He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,

A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doeskin; They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!

1 From Poems by Alfred Noyes. Copyright, 1906, by The Macmillan Company. Published in this volume by special arrangement with The Macmillan Company and Frederick A. Stokes Company.

But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,

Bess, the landlord's daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn yard a stable-wicket creaked Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked; His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like moldy hay, But he loved the landlord's daughter,

The landlord's red-lipped daughter,

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say

V

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night, But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning

light;

Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,

Then look for me by moonlight,

Watch for me by moonlight,

I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her

hand,

But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burned

like a brand

As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his

breast;

And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)

Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

PART TWO

I

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple

King George's men came marching, up to the old inn door.

II

They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead, But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;

Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their

side!

There was death at every window;

And hell at one dark window;

For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

III

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;

They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!

"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her.

She heard the dead man say 1

Look for me by moonlight;

Watch for me by moonlight;

I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

IV

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held

good!

She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!

They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,

Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

Cold on the stroke of midnight,

The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!

Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her

breast,

She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;

1 In her fear she already thought of her lover as dead.

For the road lay bare in the moonlight;

Blank and bare in the moonlight;

And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.

VI

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;

Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?

Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,

The redcoats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

VII

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep
breath,

Then her finger moved in the moonlight,

Her musket shattered the moonlight,

Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him — with her death.

VIII

He turned; he spurred to the Westward; he did not know who stood

Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!

Not till the dawn he heard it, and slowly blanched to hear

How Bess, the landlord's daughter,

The landlord's black-eyed daughter,

Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.