The Highwayman

"Immortal Sails" by Alfred Noyes (1947)

Composed in the later years of his life, “Immortal Sails” engages with many of the same themes of “The Highwayman”—love, immortality, nature, and the afterlife—but reflects Noyes’s own maturity as a poet, along with the deeper exploration of his religious beliefs that marked his later work.

"She Was a Phantom of Delight" by William Wordsworth (1807)

A well-known work by Wordsworth, this romantic poem from one of Noyes’s major influences demonstrates many of the popular themes of the romantic literary movement also used in “The Highwayman”: from the idealized woman to a fascination with the mystical, natural beauty, and the call of the supernatural.

"The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Another of Noyes’s favorite authors, Tennyson’s poem is also written as a romantic ballad and shares many parallels with the former’s work (despite its “higher” subject matter). Like Noyes’s poem, “The Lady of Shalott” narrates the tale of a mysterious, isolated woman, a handsome hero riding into town, and her doomed love and self-sacrifice.

"The Sea of Glass" by Ezra Pound (1917)

Born in the same generation, Pound was one of the most influential writers of the modernist movement, though he pursued an entirely different style and approach to poetry than Noyes.