Experiencing 'The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes'
These days understanding literature has become so much easier what with the internet's humongous repertoire. But then, you need to analyse every detail you read for not everything up there on the net will be true although it may be someone's point of view put across rather strongly. Recently , when I read The Highwayman trying to identify the threads of poetic craft that ran through it, the very experience of reading this poem filled me with wonder. Wonder at how the poet could have taken a not-so-heroic highway robber and simply with the help of well-crafted phrases and a thrilling romantic plot turn around our perception of the highwayman. So our sympathies lie, not with the law, not with what history tells us about highwaymen of the 18th century, but with the young, dashing highwayman who is hopelessly in love with Bess, the landlord's daughter, the man who promises to be back to his beloved , the courageous young lover who comes riding back to seek revenge for his l...