# Loreena Mckennitts The Highwayman

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 25, 2017, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406 "2017-05-25T08:16:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406/21 "2017-05-25T19:30:23Z")

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> [@madsircool](#):
>
> Most of us would be highwaymen if the only other option was starvation.

\*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 jewelled twinkle,  
His pistol butts a-twinkle,  
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.  
\*

I think his next meal was not a issue. :rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406/22 "2017-05-25T20:06:16Z")

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> [@Finagle](#):
>
> McKennitt’s version of the Highwayman is very moving, but I’m invariably taken out of the moment when I imagine how _pissed_ Bess, the landlord’s daughter would be to find out that the guy she sacrificed herself for throws it all away in a testosterone fueled fit of pique. I mean, the girl gives up her life for you, and twelve hours later you die while waving a sword and galloping down the highway towards guys with guns?

That’s not an issue with her song, though, it’s right there in Noyes’ poem.

Some of the other comments make me think that a lot of people don’t understand the poem. It’s a romantic tragedy, not far different from Romeo and Juliet. The poem is meant to create a vivid mental image, sort of a movie made out of words. I’m not a huge fan of poetry but I think you have to be amazed at what Noyes so skillfully did with his use of colorful adjectives and metaphors, repetition and the rhythm of the words/sentences. One of the few poems that I was glad to study in school and still remember to this day.

[Here it is](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43187), well worth reading.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406/23 "2017-05-26T08:49:32Z")

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> [@JcWoman](#):
>
> I think you have to be amazed at what Noyes so skillfully did with his use of colorful adjectives and metaphors, repetition and the rhythm of the words/sentences.

Generally with you, _except_ “tlot-tlot” is the stupidest onomatopoeia for horse’s hooves I’ve ever encountered.

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**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loreena-mckennitts-the-highwayman/787406/24 "2017-05-26T15:16:50Z")

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LOL, yeah. You’re right about that. I didn’t remember that bit from school and was surprised to see it there when I re-read it yesterday. tlot tlot indeed. 😃

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