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By alfred noyes
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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-
Riding-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 doe-skin;
They fitted with never a
wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol
butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
Iii
Over the
cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the
shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be
waiting there
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 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-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 uprigh |
