If you find the poem...
Illustration
If you find the poem suggested in the commentary too violent, here is an alternative:
Prose:
A nighttime bandit, known as the Highwayman, was in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, whose name was Bess. In the still of the night and under the cover of darkness, the Highwayman would rendezvous with Bess through an elaborate system of signals. Bess was known to nervously twist her hair in the presence of her gentleman admirer.
Poem:
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas.
The road was a river of moonlight over the purple moor.
And the Highwayman came riding, riding, riding,
The Highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And 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 waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Prose:
A nighttime bandit, known as the Highwayman, was in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, whose name was Bess. In the still of the night and under the cover of darkness, the Highwayman would rendezvous with Bess through an elaborate system of signals. Bess was known to nervously twist her hair in the presence of her gentleman admirer.
Poem:
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas.
The road was a river of moonlight over the purple moor.
And the Highwayman came riding, riding, riding,
The Highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And 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 waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
