Question #1: Explain what selflessness is and how it is revealed in the poem, “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes. Question #2: Use specific evidence from the poem, “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes, to describe how vivid language is used to create images for the reader.

Question #3: Use evidence from the poem to explain why the Highwayman did not ride off, but instead allowed himself to be killed at the end of the poem.

#1… concern more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own.

Explanation:

#2…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 highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

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.

#3… And the highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.