SOURCE: "Alfred Noyes 1880-1958," in The Catholic World, Vol. 188, January, 1959, pp. 297-301.

In the following excerpt, Stanford praises Noyes's lyrical poems while noting that his non-lyrical poem "Drake" is less successful.

… But it is, of course, with poetry that Noyes' name is most commonly connected. How many classrooms must have thrilled to the elementary but compulsive music of such poems as "The Highwayman," "The Barrel-Organ," and "A Song of Sherwood"! With its rhythmic repetitions and its strong dramatic drive, the first of these pieces shows Noyes at his best. Few poems written this century can have served as the basis of a film-script, but "The Highwayman" was one of them. The magic of its opening translates itself readily into cinematic terms. One sees, as upon the projector's screen, a figure on a horse careering through the night:

 "The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees...