The Highwayman

 Poems from my childhood.... The first part only…. The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, and 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, riding, riding, the highway man came riding, up to the old inn door. 

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, a coat of the claret velvet, and breaches of brown doeskin. They fitted with never a wrinkle, his boots were up to his thigh, and he rode with a jewelled twinkle, his pistol butts a twinkle, his rapier hilt a twinkle, under the Jewelled sky. 

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn yard. He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred. He whistled a tune to the window, and he should be waiting there, but the landlord’s black eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, platting a dark red love knot into her long black hair.

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 mouldy hay, but he loved the landlord’s   daughter, the landlord’s red lip daughter. Dumb as a dog he listen, and he heard the robber say: 

One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a price tonight, 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 shall bar the way.

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand, but she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand, as the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast, and he kissed its waves in the moonlight, (O sweet black waves in the moonlight), then he tugged at his reign in the Moonlight, and galloped away to the west.