Metaphors In The Highwayman

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Love stories usually have two characters who love each other and can meet each other up close and can see each other without a problem, but in “The Highwayman,” the two characters in love can never meet freely up close and when “the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, the highwayman man came riding” (ll. 91-94). “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes, is a story full of intense love, sacrifice, and dark secrets. The poem talks about a fierce love story on a spooky winter night when Just like any other poem or story, this poem has a theme. “The Highwayman” has a very distinctive universal theme and the author can express the theme with many different types of …show more content…

and repetition, and the image and symbol of colors to help the reader see the theme and other messages that the poem may convey. Metaphors, similes, and imagery are all techniques that Noyes uses to help the reader clearly see the theme and the message he is trying to convey. Metaphors and similes compare unlike things together and may help the reader visualize and understand the author’s thoughts and images better. Additionally, the use of imagery can help the reader picture out scenes or images. Crucial and important parts in “The Highwayman” that shows the use of metaphors and imagery are when Noyes talks about the moon and the wind. He compares the wind and moon to objects and makes them sound like characters and play a role in the poem, even though they are not living. For example, Alfred Noyes mentions that the moon is “ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas” (l. 2) and the that the road looks a “ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor” (l. 3). In this line, the moon is compared to a ghostly galleon because the moon is a the misty cloud covers the moon like waves in the ocean. This leads to the assumption that the setting of the story is a dark and windy

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