The Highwayman

Alfred Noyes's famous poem still has the power to thrill us as we read the story of the highwayman and his doomed love for Bess, the landlord's black-eyed daughter. Charles Keeping's stunning illustrations won this book the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1982.

Book Author: Alfred Noyes

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Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Read the poem with the class. Stop at different places and ask the children to predict what might happen next.
• Look at the images in the book. Discuss what the characters might be thinking / feeling at different points in the story.
• Hot seating - ask a child to take on the role of one of the characters. Ask him / her about events from the story, and get children to question the character about the events of the poem, and their role within them.
• Freeze-frame different parts of the story. Ask children to pose different scenes from the poem. You can then quiz them about their role in the poem.
• Create some character profiles of the different people in the story. What words would you use to describe each of them?
• The poem uses lots of metaphors to describe things. Can you make up your own metaphors for people / objects / places in the poem (or in other stories)?
• Look at the use of rhyming within the poem. Can you think of other rhyming words?
• Some of the words in the poem are not in common use today. Can you find out what they mean? Could you make a glossary which gives definitions / explanations of what they mean?
• Some words and phrases in the poem are repeated a number of times. Discuss why Alfred Noyes decided to do this.
• 'Tlot, Tlot' is used to describe the movement of the horses' hooves. Can you think of other examples of onomatopoeia?
• Write a diary entry from the point of view of the Highwayman at different points in the story.
• Look at the use of different types of punctuation within the poem and identify why they have been used each time.
• Watch the video retellings of the poem shown below, and discuss how they are similar / different to the poem.

Computing

• Retell the story through the use of digital photographs and combine them using Powerpoint or a similar tool.

Art

• Could you make an animation which retells the story? Here is an example of an animation made by a class of children:

Music

• Can you compose a tune which could be played whilst the poem was read aloud?