Hello and welcome back to The Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern.

Today is Halloween, of course.

So I'm going to continue reading some Halloween-themed poems.

Like The Raven, which I read yesterday,

this is something of a longer poem,

and it's The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes.

He lived from 1880 to 1958.

And this poem, like much of his early work,

and like The Raven by Poe,

is a narrative poem

and is reminiscent of Wordsworth and Tennyson,

who always considered to be major influences.

It's a longish poem, as I said, so I'm going to go ahead and dive right in.

Part one.

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 highway man came riding, riding, riding,

the highway man came riding, up to the old indoor. 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 jeweled twinkle, his pistol butts a

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