The Highwayman

Noyes structures his poem with particular attention to the time of day and night, down to the minute in some moments. Certainly, the shift between night and day plays into the themes and sets a romantic tone for the lovers’ encounters. However, the precise attention to the time of each action plays an important role in the progress of the poem. The highwayman opens in the dead of night with the village locked up and asleep, except for Bess, himself, and Tim the ostler. After their brief encounter, the highwayman tells Bess that if he is successful, he will return “before the morning light” (Line 26), but if he is pursued, he will return to her by moonlight the next evening.

Stanza seven plays off this structure, for as Bess watches for her lover, he does not return “in the dawning” (Line 37) and “he did not come at noon” (Line 37), so the reader already knows his robbery did not go as he had hoped. Instead, at sunset, “before the rise of the moon” (Line 38), troops appear on the road, arriving as if from “the tawny sunset” (Line 38), representing a different authority openly operating in the light of day (and with the authority of the king).