Question

1. What characteristics do narrative poems share with short stories? Give examples of these characteristics in "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes. Then explain the effect of figurative language in this poem and describe how the poem's mood is related to its language, setting, and content.

Answer 1

Characteristics of narrative poems:

They both relate to personal experience and are both frequently told from 1st person perspective
A narrative poem is one that tells a story. It follows a similar structure as that for a short story or novel. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, as well as the usual literary devices such as character and plot.

Now look at the poem and see how it mtaches the above characterictics.

"the effect of figurative language and the relationship between the poem's mood and its language, setting, and content."

"Here is a website that tells more about the different types of figurative language:
http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/fig...

<<Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language, that is, any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration.>>

This poem is full of figurative language throughout. For example, the first three lines of the poem are metaphors:

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, " quote 


Credit goes to: "Casey" at yahoo answers