The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

Transcription

1 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes In your blue literature book, turn to page 630. Get out your notes. Write today s date at the top of your notes. Underneath the date, write the name of the poem and author.

2 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes Some background: The Highwayman is loosely based on the legends of notorious highwaymen who terrorized - and charmed - the English countryside between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The most famous of all highwaymen was Dick Turpin. Legend has it that Turpin rode from London to York, a distance of about 190 miles (50-60 miles on horseback is the general time a horse can travel a day), in 15 hours. His motive was to create a false alibi for a robbery he had just committed. Turpin was eventually found and executed.

3 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes Let s listen to the play in its entirety before studying it in depth.

4 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes Summary: The Highwayman is a narrative poem that tells a romantic tale of love, betrayal, honor, and death. A dashing robber loves Bess. The soldiers set up a trap and take Bess hostage. She manages to warn the highwayman but dies in the process. He is killed trying to avenge her death.

5 Story Vocabulary narrative poem (628) stanza - a group of lines in a poem torrent (630) bound (632)

6 Footnotes Write into your notes all the footnotes in this poem. There are eleven of them.

7 Stanza 1: The wind was a torrent p Describe the setting of our poem. 2. List the three metaphors. 3. List two examples of alliteration. 4. What word symbolizes the beating of the horse s hooves?

8 Stanza 1 - Answers 1. A windy night, moon is pale and gives off light, there s a road, a rider, and an old inn. 2. wind was a torrent of darkness moon was a ghostly galleon road was ribbon of moonlight 3. ghostly galleon road was a ribbon 4. riding - repetition sounds like horse s hooves

9 Stanza 2: He d a French cocked-hat p What kind of hat is the highwayman wearing? 2. What does he have at his chin? 3. What color is his coat? What material is it? 4. What are his pants made of? 5. What did he wear on his feet? 6. Why was his pistol butt twinkling? 7. Why was his rapier twinkling? 8. How can the sky be jeweled?

10 Stanza 2 - Answers 1. French cocked; tricorn; like Jack Sparrow s 2. lace; the amount shows how wealthy you are 3. wine colored and it s velvet 4. doeskin (deer) and brown 5. riding boots that reach his thigh; protect his legs 6. may be covered with jewels; silver or gold 7. may be covered with jewels; silver or gold 8. stars light up like jewels

11 Stanza 2 1. What evidence in stanza two suggests that the highwayman is a successful, wealthy robber?

12 Stanza 2 - Answer 1. He can afford his outfit - velvet, lace, tailor pants, and jeweled weapons.

13 Stanza 3: Over the cobbles p Why would the inn be locked and barred? 2. Who is Bess? 3. What does she look like? 4. Write the two examples of alliteration. 5. Write the two examples of onomatopoeia. 6. Why would the highwayman whistle a tune? Why is this important? 7. How is dark red love knot symbolic in this stanza?

14 Stanza 3 - Answers 1. It s nighttime. Everyone s asleep. 2. the inn s landlord s daughter 3. black-eyed, long black hair 4. cobbles he clattered and clashed whistled...to the window, and who...waiting 5. clattered clashed 6. He s getting Bess s attention; their love is secret 7. It s symbolic of the highwayman and Bess s love.

15 Stanza 4: And dark in the dark p Who is Tim? 2. Describe Tim s physical appearance. 3. Why would his face be white and peaked? 4. With whom is he in love? 5. What animal is he associated with? How is this symbolic? 6. What is Tim doing that a bit naughty? 7. List one metaphor and two similes.

16 Stanza 4 - Answers 1. He takes care of the stables 2. dirty and not intelligent; a bit mad 3. He s scared he ll get caught; nervous 4. Bess 5. dog - low in society; obedient; uneducated; he s waiting; others treat him that way 6. eavesdropping on the highwayman and Bess

17 Stanza 4 - Answers 7. metaphor - his eyes were hollows of madness similes - his hair like moldy hair dumb as a dog

18 Stanza 5: One kiss, my bonny p From what country does the highwayman hail? 2. What prize is he after? (hint: two possibilities) 3. What does he mean - yellow gold? (two possibilities) 4. When should Bess watch for the highwayman? 5. How do we know that the highwayman would do anything to get back to Bess?

19 Stanza 5 - Answers 1. Scotland 2. wealth (money, jewels); Bess 3. money; wedding ring for Bess 4. In the moonlight, he ll come before morning 5. though hell should bar the way

20 Stanza 6 - He rose upright p What did Bess do with her hair? 2. How does her hair brand him? 3. What word does the author repeat for effect? 4. How is west symbolic? 5. Name the simile. 6. Name at least one image.

21 Stanza 6 - Answers 1. Let the length fall out of the window. 2. Where her hair touches him, it marks him as belonging to her. 3. moonlight 4. setting sun, the end of the day, death (symbolically) 5. his face burnt like a brand 6. Black cascade of perfume ; he rose upright in the stirrups ; kissed its waves ; tugged at the reins ; galloped away

22 Part 2 Stanza 7 - He did not come in p What line in stanza 7 shows a passage of time? 2. Name the new metaphor. 3. Who are the men marching into town? To what country do they belong? 4. What word is repeated for an effect?

23 Part 2 Stanza 7 - Answers 1. He did not come in the dawning...noon;/and out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon, 2. road was a gypsy s ribbon. 3. Redcoats - British soldiers from England under King George s command. 4. marching - has a harsh sound = tells us about the soldiers

24 Stanza 8 - They said no word p What words suggest that the soldiers might be drunk? 2. What do the soldiers do to Bess? Why? 3. How is death at each window symbolically? 4. Why is one window more hellish than the rest? 5. Hell has been used twice. What is the connection between the two times it s been used?

25 Stanza 8 - Answer 1. drank his [landlord s] ale 2. tie and gag her in front of a window as bait for the highwayman 3. soldiers at every window 4. window where Bess and the highwayman could see each other 5. the highwayman foreshadows this hell when he said though hell should bar the way

26 Stanza 9 - They tied her up p What does it mean they tied her up to attention? 2. What is a sniggering jest? 3. Where was the gun pointed? 4. Why is the phrase keep good watch! and they kissed her ironic? 5. Who is the doomed man in line 51?

27 Stanza 9 - Answers 1. stood her up 2. cruel joke 3. at her heart 4. Keeping watch is the only thing she can do and kissing someone is usually affection but they are threatening her with her death and her love s death 5. the highwayman

28 Stanza 10 - She twisted her hands p What is Bess trying to do in this stanza? 2. What is one word in this stanza that highly symbolic? What does it stand for? 3. Give two examples of alliteration. 4. Give one example of personification. 5. Give one example of repetition. 6. Give one example of a simile.

29 Stanza 10 - Answers 1. get out of her bonds 2. blood - death; life; foreshadows the highwayman s blood at the end; love 3. stretched and strained tip of one finger touched it 1. hours crawled 2. midnight 3. hours crawled by like years

30 Stanza 11 - The tip of one finger p What can Bess s finger touch? 2. Why does Bess not want the soldiers to hear what she is doing? 3. Which line in this stanza indicated that Bess has made up her mind about what she intends to do? 4. How is the [bare] road symbolic? 5. How does the moonlight aid Bess?

31 Stanza 11 - Answers 1. the trigger of the rifle 2. she doesn t want them alerted to her plan 3. she would not strive again 4. highwayman hasn t arrived; her life is bare if he is killed 5. helps her see to kill herself

32 Stanza 12 - Tlot-tlot p Name one example of onomatopoeia. 2. Name one example of personification. 3. Name one example of repetition. 4. Name one example of alliteration.

33 Stanza 12 - Answers 1. tlot-tlot 2. brow of the hill 3. riding-riding-riding 4. she stood up, straight and still.

34 Stanza 13 - Tlot-tlot in the frosty silence Name two examples of repetition. 2. Name one simile. 3. How was Bess s face like a light to the highwayman (multiple answers here) 4. How has the moonlight changed from the beginning of the story until now?

35 Stanza 13 - answers 1. nearer he came and nearer moonlight 1. her face was like a light 2. light= pale/scared; Heaven s light, signal light or warning, light to lead the way 3. At the beginning, moonlight let Bess see the highwayman; now he will be killed because the light will show that he s arrived

36 Stanza 14 - He turned. He spurred What is spurred to the west symbolic of? 2. What has the highwayman learned in this stanza? 3. What is his emotional state in this stanza?

37 Stanza 14 - Answers 1. the highwayman s death 2. Bess is dead 3. he s sad his face was gray to hear

38 Stanza 15 - Back, he spurred like a Name two similes. 2. What is the highwayman seeking in this stanza? 3. How do we know he is ready to fight? 4. Dog is used symbolically in this stanza. What does it symbolize now? 5. This stanza goes back to the clothes he is wearing. How has the highwayman s circumstances changed? How is this symbolic?

39 Stanza 15 - Back, he spurred like a he spurred like a madman down like a dog 2. revenge 3. his rapier [sword] brandished high 4. dog = he s now as low as Tim 5. Soldiers have taken everything from him: Bess, his wealth, his status, and lastly his life

40 Stanza (last two stanzas in italics) 1. What do you notice about these stanzas? 2. Why are the stanzas italicized?

41 Stanza (last two stanzas in italics) 1. The are the exact same as the first two stanzas of the poem 2. to make the reader notice to mark a passage of time/how the story has changed We are reading the story in the present and now, the tapping on the window and the whistling a tune is the ghost of the highwayman revisiting the ghost of Bess.