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ProfessorPlum77 No haha. That part did make it into the song, and is actually my favorite part of the song itself. That and the way the music picks up as she describes the Highwayman turning back to the Inn when he learned that she died.
But I feel like my favorite part of the poem itself is the
context of "The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest.
Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast.
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love’s refrain."
Obviously, lyrically, that isn't the most brilliant or artistically descriptive or dramatic part of the poem. But its the part that makes it clear that she had made the decision to die rather than risk not being able to save him too. The song makes it sound like she was just unable to change the angle of the gun away from her rather than showing that it was a choice to not try and move it away because she was worried that they would hear and notice and take the gun away entirely. So I feel like that was one of the most important pieces of context and it was taken out. That and the song takes out the part that explains that it was the ostler who reported where the Highwayman was because he loved the Landlord's daughter and was jealous, and he ended up killing both of them with his jealousy. So while I really like the song and listen to it all the time and like how it peaks at some points, I do think it missed the different layers in the poem that really explained how it was caused by jealousy and how sacrificing the Landlord's daughter really was.
