Lesson video

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our lesson today.

My name is Ms. Mullins, and today, we're continuing with analysing more stanzas of, "The Highwayman," narrative poem.

In today's lesson, you will be analysing and understanding the events in stanzas three and four of, "The Highwayman." Here are some key words we're going to be using: narrative poem, build-up, stanza, analyse.

Well Done.

A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story.

The buildup introduces a storyline for some main characters and begins to set up a problem or situation that will build in tension.

A stanza is a part of a poem consisting of two or more lines grouped together.

To analyse is to study something in detail to understand its meaning.

Today, we're going to be analysing stanza three and four of, "The Highwayman." We're gonna begin by analysing stanzas three, and then we will analyse stanza four.

Throughout this unit, we've been basing our writing on Alfred Noyes' narrative poem, "The Highwayman." "The Highwayman," is set in rural England in the 18th century.

Here's a summary of our writing so far.

Stanzas one and two describe the setting and, "The Highwayman," himself, and we based our setting and character descriptions on these two stanzas.

Stanza three and stanza four, they're going to form the basis of parts of the build-up.

Let's review stanzas one and two of, "The Highwayman," before we move on to looking at anything else.

Let's read it together.

"The Highwayman," by Alfred Noyes.

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.

Stanzas one and two of the poem form the basis of what? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done, if you remembered that stanzas one and two of the poem form the basis of the setting and character description.

Now, let's read and analyse stanza three of, "The Highwayman." Let's read it together.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be standing there but the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long, black hair.

Some of the vocabulary in this stanza might be unfamiliar, because, remember, this poem was written in the 18th century, so lots of our use of language has changed since then.

Cobbles are stones used to cover road surfaces, and we've got a picture here of what a cobbled street looks like.

A plait is a hairstyle, so Bess was standing at the window of the inn, plaiting her long dark hair into this hairstyle.

An inn is a pub, sometimes offering accommodation, usually in a rural area.

So, the landlord, in the 18th century, a landlord would've been a man.

Women wouldn't have owned property, but in the 18th century, the landlord would've been a man who owned and managed a pub, an inn, or a small hotel.

Now, we know that Beth was the landlord's daughter, and a dark red love-knot is a dark red ribbon, so she was plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long, dark hair.

She was plaiting a dark red ribbon through her hair.

Match the words to their definitions, and pause the video while you do that.

Well done, if you spotted that cobbles or stones used to cover road surfaces.

A landlord was, in the 18th century, a man who owned and managed a pub, inn, or small hotel.

A plait was a hairstyle.

A love-knot is a ribbon, woven through Bess' hair, and an inn is a rural pub, sometimes offering accommodation.

Throughout this narrative poem, Alfred Noyes uses a range of figurative language and poetic devices to create atmosphere and paint vivid imagery for the reader.

These are all examples of things he's done: metaphor, simile, personification, repetition, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia.

Now, onomatopoeia is a new poetic device we haven't talked about yet, but it is a word that sounds like the sound it is describing.

So, for example, words like, "crash," "zoom," and, "pop," are on onomatopoeic words, because those words actually sound like the sounds they are describing.

Now, match the linguistic features of poetry to their definitions.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done, if you spotted that rhyme is when word endings sound the same.

Repetition is the repeating of keywords and phrases.

Alliteration is when many words begin with the same letter.

Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the sound it is describing.

Simile compares two things using, "like," or "as," and metaphor compares two things by saying that one thing is another.

Now, it's time for your task.

Circle and label one example of each of the poetic devices in stanza three of, "The Highwayman." So, find an example of rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Okay, everyone, well done for completing your task.

Yard, barred, there, and hair were all examples of rhyming pairs.

The words, "landlord's," and, "daughter," were repeated here.

These are our examples of repetition.

Alliteration were, "clattered," and, "clashed." Both of them start with C-L.

Onomatopoeia, remember, those words that sound like the sound they're describing, could have been "cluttered," "clashed," or, "tapped." All of those are sound words.

Reread stanza three of, "The Highwayman," and draw what you picture in your mind's eye.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done, everyone.

I'm sure you have created some amazing drawings to illustrate stanza three.

Take a moment to check your drawing.

Did you remember to include all of these? So, the Highwayman on his horse in the inn-yard, whistling to Bess' window, and Bess at the window, plaiting a ribbon into her long, black hair.

Well, done everyone.

That now brings us onto the second part of our lesson, where now, we're going to analyse stanza four.

So, just a recap of what we've done so far.

We've already written our setting and character description, which is based on stanzas one and two.

We've now analysed stanza three, which was all about Bess, and now, we're going to analyse stanza four.

Let's read and analyse stanza four of, "The Highwayman." Let's read it together.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked where Tim, the ostler listened, his face was white and peaked.

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, but he loved the landlord's daughter, the landlord's red-lipped daughter.

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say.

So here, now, we've been introduced to a whole new character, called Tim.

Now, before we talk about Tim in any more detail, let's just make sure we understand any of this unfamiliar language from stanza four.

So, a stable-wicket was a door of a stable, and a stable is where horses are kept.

An ostler is a person employed to look after the horses of people staying at an inn.

So, we know that this setting now is taking place at an inn, and inn is a rural pub which offers accommodation, so that means where guests can stay the night in the pub.

Tim was employed by the landlord to look after the horses of anyone who was staying at the pub, so we might also call him a stable attendant or a stable boy, but in the 18th century, a more common word for this would have been an ostler, and dumb, in this context, means silent, so, "Dumb as a dog he listened," it means silently, as a dog, he listened in on the pair's conversation, Match the words to their definitions, and pause the video while you do that.

Well done, if you spotted that an ostler is a person employed to look after the horses of people staying at an inn, a stable-wicket is the door of a stable, which is where horses are kept, and dumb, in this context, means silent.

Now, it's time for your task.

Circle and label one example of each of the linguistic features in stanza four of, "The Highwayman." So, one example of rhyme, repetition, metaphor, simile, and alliteration.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great work, everyone.

So, let's start with rhyme.

"Creaked," "peaked," "hay," and, "say," were all examples of rhyming pairs, and you've probably spotted now that all of the stanzas seem to be following the same pattern, where these rhyming pairs are the final words of the same lines in each stanza.

"His eyes were hollows of madness." Now, they weren't actually hollows of madness.

This is a metaphor, remember, when we compare one thing to another by saying it is another thing.

"His hair was like mouldy hay," that, when we compare two things using, "like," or, "as," this is a simile.

We had repetition of the words, "dark," and, "landlord's daughter," and, "dumb as a dog," is an example of alliteration.

"Dumb as a dog," was also an example of a simile in this stanza.

Draw what you picture in your mind's eye when you read about Tim in stanza four of, "The Highwayman." Brilliant work, everyone.

I hope you really enjoyed creating your illustration for stanza four.

Take a moment to check your drawing, though, and did you remember to include these things: Tim's hollow eyes, his hair that looks like mouldy hay, and him spying on the Highwayman and Bess from the stable.

Now, we have completed our analysis of stanza four, which is all about Tim.

To finish us off now, what do you predict that the the Highwayman will say to Bess? So, stanza four finishes with Tim listening in, and he heard the robber say, and then the stanza finishes, and I'm not gonna tell you what the Highwayman said to Bess until we look at stanza five in more detail, but what do you predict the Highwayman will say to Bess? Use the sentence scaffolds here on the screen to help you.

So, you might think, "I predict that the highwayman will ask," he might ask her a question, "I predict that the Highwayman will tell," so he might have information to give to Bess, or, "I predict that the Highwayman will say." Pause the video now, while you think of a prediction of what you think the Highwayman will say to Bess and write it down.

Well done, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed making your predictions.

Here are some possible answers you might have written.

Now, remember, what I've got written down here might be different to what you've predicted, and that's okay, as well, but you might have predicted that the Highwayman will tell Bess to run away with him, he might ask Bess to marry him, he might say to Bess that he wants her to help him with a robbery, 'cause remember, he's a highwayman, and he robs from travellers going across the moor, and you're gonna have to wait until we read stanza five to find out whether your prediction is correct or not.

Well done, everyone.

That now brings us to the end of our lesson today, where we have been analysing stanzas three and four of, "The Highwayman." A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story.

Different stanzas of the poem can be used to form the basis of a piece of narrative writing.

Analysing each stanza in depth allows us to fully understand the storyline, characters, and vocabulary.

I really hope that you've enjoyed analysing stanzas three and four of, "The Highwayman," and developing our understanding of what's happening in this narrative poem.

Well done, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again for our next lesson.