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Alfred Noyes or not?


  • funpum
    Apr 13 10:50 AM
    Reply
    Dear Jim, or anyone reading this, does anyone know who wrote the above poem? It has bee put on other sites as being written by Alfred Noyes, but a friend of mine has read all his poems and hasn't found it listed... does anyone know who wrote it if it isn't A Noyes, or knows where published if he did?

  • I-Like-Rhymes
    April 13
    Reply
    I'd love to help out Liz but you forgot to tell us which Noyes(or not Noyes) poem you were asking about.
    Please let us know and we will all do what we can to help.
    Jim

    • I-Like-Rhymes
      April 14
      Reply
      This is the poem Funpum's unsure about
      =======================================
      Hello Jim, sorry about that, I've been realy il and i can't use the computer much, so do it in short bursts, very ineficiently! I've copied the poem:

      The daylight moon looked quietly down
      Through the gathering dusk on London town
      A smock-frocked yokel hobbled along
      By newgate, humming a country song.
      Chewing a straw, he stood to stare
      At the proclamation posted there:
      Three hundred guineas on Turpins head,
      Trap him alive or shoot him dead;
      And a hundred more for his mate, Tom King.
      He crouched like a tiger about to spring.
      Then he looked up, and he looked down;
      And chuckling low, like a country clown,
      Dick turpin painfully hobbled away
      In quest of his inn – the load of hay...

      Alone in her stall, his mare, black bess,
      Lifted her head in mute distress;
      For five strange men had entered the yard
      And looked at her long, and looked at her hard.
      They went out, muttering under their breath;
      And then – the dusk grew still as death.
      But the velvet ears of the listening mare
      Lifted and twitched. They were there – still there;
      Hidden and waiting; for whom? And why?
      The clock struck four, a set drew nigh.
      Its was King! Dick Tyrpins mate.
      The black mare whinnied. Too late! Too late!
      They rose like shadows out of the ground
      And grappled him there, without a sound.
      Throttle him – quietly – choke him dead!
      Or we lose this hawk for a jay, they said.
      They wrestled and heaved, five men to one;
      And a yokel entered the yard, alone;
      A smock-frocked yokel, hobbling slow;
      But a fight is physic as all men know.
      His age dropped off, he stood upright.
      He leapt like a tiger into the fight.
      Hand to hand, they fought in the dark;
      For none could fire at a twisting mark.
      Where he that shot at a foe might send
      His pistol ball through the skull of a friend.
      But shook dick shoot gasped out tom king
      Shoot! Shoot! Or we both shall swing!
      Shoot and chance it! Dick leapt back.
      He drew. He fired. At the pistols crack
      The wrestlers whirled. They scattered apart
      And the bullet drilled through Tom Kings heart...
      Dick Turpin dropped his smoking gun.
      They had trapped him five men to one.
      A gun in the hand of the crouching five.
      They could take dick turpin now alive;
      Take him and bind him and tell their tale
      As a pot house boast, when they drank their ale.
      He whistled, soft as a bird might call
      And a head rope snapped in his birds dark stall.
      He whistled, soft as a nightingale
      He heard the swish of her swinging tail.
      Ther was no way out that the five could see
      To heaven or hell, but the tyburn tree;
      No door but death; and yet once more
      He whistled, as though at a sweethearts door
      The five men laughed at him, trapped alive;
      And – the door crashed open behind the five!
      Out of the stable, a wave of thunder,
      Swept black bess, and the five went under.
      He leapt to the saddle, a hoof turned stone,
      Flashed blue fire, and their prize was gone.....
      =========================================
      Jim

  • rufina caraid
    April 14
    Reply
    I've searched just about everywhere I can think of and nothing comes up - sorry funpum - I do hope you find it soon. Von - Oldpoetry

  • phatalvision
    April 16
    Reply
    There is a poem titled Dick Turpin's Ride by Alfred Noyes. I haven't found a copy to verify, but I'll bet this is what you're looking for.

    • I-Like-Rhymes
      April 17
      Reply
      That was also the title of a book of collected poems By Noyes but I have not yey located either book or poem.
      jim

  • phatalvision
    April 17
    Reply
    I found it. It's called 'The Ballad Of Dick Turpin'. Here is a link to where I found it. BUT... only the first 14 lines match. My source is a book of ballads coyrighted in 1971. I have to wonder about this reader's version, maybe it is a different poem, but like I say, the first 14 lines are exactly the same.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=dZpgOoDD5c4C&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=three+hundred+guineas+on+turpins+head&source=web&ots=L77P3k3R8I&sig=fD3vgRCIlzRhMDyXN3GeoTXpWWM&hl=en#PPA141,M1

  • rufina caraid
    April 17
    Reply
    http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/117784-Alfred-Noyes-The-Ballad-of-Dick-Turpin

    FUNPUM: Here you are. I've just posted it to our site. It's from the link that 'phatalvision' posted here. I still need to edit it but time has beaten me for the moment. this is it in it's entirety. I have really enjoyed typing and reading this most glorious adventure, I felt the 'Oh No,' as Black Bess took her last breath -so sad. However I do hope you enjoy reading this through to the end. Regards, Von - Oldpoetry

  • I-Like-Rhymes
    April 18
    Reply
    Well Done Dan and Von
    Jim

  • ronnica
    April 19
    Reply
    Are there any answers to this column elsewhere
    Ronnica
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