The Highwayman

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.

In Alfred Noyes’s thrilling poem, charged with drama and tension, we ride with the highwayman and recoil from the terrible fate that befalls him and his sweetheart Bess, the landlord’s daughter. The vivid imagery of the writing is matched by Charles Keeping’s haunting illustrations which won him the Kate Greenaway Medal.