The Highwayman

[GaryG]

This poem by Alfred Noyes is my all time favorite, I read it at least once a month. Lyrical poetry just doesn't get any better. This was required reading when I was in school but may not be any more. It was put to music by Phil Ochs although he left out some key verses and took some literary license. Here is the poem:

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html

[mostpost]

This poem by Alfred Noyes is my all time favorite, I read it at least once a month. Lyrical poetry just doesn't get any better. This was required reading when I was in school but may not be any more. It was put to music by Phil Ochs although he left out some key verses and took some literary license. Here is the poem:

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html
I don't believe that was ever taught in my school. It should have been.

[DJofSD]

The name was familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. But I did eventually find it in Project Gutenburg: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/wtcsk10.txt

[NJ Stinks]

Very good poem indeed! :ThmbUp:

[Overlay]

I've always liked the poem. (although I took a fair amount of kidding about Tim the ostler when we studied it in class). I recall listening to Dr. James Dobson of "Focus on the Family" lauding it extensively on his daily radio show one time as the type of material that students should be reading, and he then began his own recitation of it. I immediately thought of the line where the highwayman says, "I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way," and wondered whether he would be priggish enough to bowdlerize it in some way, but he didn't.

P.S. My eyes are not hollows of madness, nor is my hair like moldy hay.

[OTM Al]

Poetry discussion. There is hope for off-topic after all!

This was always one of my favorites. If you know some German, you might even be able to read some of the original.

http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=text&id=Wdr

The beginning and ending of this poem may have been altered to change to a more Christian based theme as this poem may predate the conversions of those peoples.

For those of you who enjoy Tolkein you will see something a little familiar here as he used Anglo-Saxon myth as the basis for Rohan and in fact paraphrased and adapted this poem, though the web page author miscredits the quote.

[GaryG]

Here is Phil....a very young Phil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB5vnpzm86g

[Tom]

Poetry discussion. There is hope for off-topic after all!



There was a young man from Nantucket.....

[DJofSD]

There was a young man from Nantucket.....
Be a man: finish it.

[Tom]

Who carried his beer in a bucket.

[DJofSD]

You still have two more verses to go.....!

[Tom]

The silly old geezer
kept it in the freezer
And he broke off a piece and he sucked it.