Thereâs a poem I once learned about in Year 5 and it has stuck with me ever since. When I think back to it, something about it has always felt so Jerza-coded to me.
Itâs called âThe Highwaymanâ by Alfred Noyes.
To reiterate what the poemâs story basically is:
The Highwayman (a kind of fugitive/outlaw) is deeply in love with Bess, the innkeeperâs daughter. He visits her secretly at night, and they share a passionate, forbidden bond.
But heâs being hunted. And when soldiers arrive to trap him, they use Bess as bait. They tie her up and place a gun to her chest, planning to shoot if he comes back.
In a moment of pure, agonising sacrifice, Bess takes her own life to warn him away, firing the gun and giving her life so he might escape.
He hears the gunshot and rides off, but when he learns what happened to her, he returns in a rage and is gunned down too.
Itâs incredibly tragic, but itâs also a haunting portrayal of love, devotion, and the cost of loyalty.
Iâve always thought it to be Jerza-coded, but now that Iâm older I finally can tell why and itâs actually unreal.
âą Jellal as the highwayman â the fugitive, the romanticised outlaw, constantly running from his past but still deeply in love. His reverence for Bess mirrors how Jellal holds Erza in this unreachable, sacred lightâher strength, her hair, her presence. Heâs burdened by his crimes and stays away for her sake, but the love never dies.
âą Erza as Bess â the loyal one, the one who always defends him, even when heâs at his worst. Erza is no stranger to sacrificeâshe would die for him, and in many ways already has, emotionally and symbolically.
Like Bess, she never stopped believing in him.
âą Simon as Tim the Ostler â the bitter, jealous figure who gives Jellal up, either out of possessiveness or spite.
Itâs such a clean fit itâs kind of scary.
Aside from the characters involved and their dynamic, even the language of the poem feels Jerza-coded.
That ache, that yearning across danger and time, the way both characters orbit each other while tragedy loomsâŠ
It just feels like them in the most beautifully harrowing way.
Iâll quote some stanzas from the poem and show you what Iâm seeing.
âThe Man Who Keeps Leavingâ â Jellal as the Highwayman:
This paints the image of a romanticised outlawâelegant, refined, dangerous.
Thatâs Jellal through and through: a fugitive, yet noble, a man who moves through the night carrying both beauty and destruction.
Heâs always been portrayed with this almost tragic elegance, especially in contrast to his guilt and past.
This moment feels so Jellal-coded Iâm actually losing my mindâthe reverence, the worshipful tone, the intensity of his love for her.
That image of him burying his face in her hair before leaving into danger⊠Itâs such a Jellal thing.
Always leaving. Always carrying that love with him.
Just imagine it was sweet scarlet waves in the starlight, and then this moment literally becomes them.
Jellalâs love for Erza.
âThe Silent Martyrâ â Erza as Bess:
That moment of utter sacrifice, not for glory, not for credit, but for him.
Erzaâs always been willing to suffer quietly for those she loves. Even when sheâs the one left behind, she protects without hesitation. She would absolutely give everything for Jellal, even if it broke her.
And itâs a canonical event.
That stanza is Erza in Tartaros. Sheâs literally being torturedâstripped of her strength, her magic, her dignityâbut when Kyouka gives her the choice to live and give Jellal up, or endure more pain and protect him, she doesnât even flinch.
She refused to betray him.
She would rather suffer. She would rather die. Not out of blind loyaltyâbut because her love for Jellal is that deep, that absolute.
Just like Bess, her body becomes the final line of defense. Not as Titania, not as the warriorâbut as the woman who loves him. A woman in agony who would rather shatter than let him suffer again.
Erza in Tartaros is not fighting as Titania.
She is suffering as Bess.
Thatâs the quiet, brutal beauty of it.
Erza will always protect Jellalâeven when he doesnât ask her to. Even when he pushes her away. Even when it costs her everything.
Her devotion is not loud. It is not for show.
Her love for him doesnât need to be loud.
Itâs a noose pulled tight, and never released.
âThe Betrayer in the Shadowsâ â Simon as Tim the Ostler:
Simon being consumed by jealousy and betrayal makes him a near-perfect stand-in for Tim.
While Tim is silent and eerie, his actions are devastating, just like Simonâs betrayal of Erza.
It comes not from justice, but from spite and possessiveness. His inability to truly love her as she is results in her suffering.
(In the poem, Tim, maddened by jealousy, is actually the one who tells on the lovers to the kingâs men, ultimately leading to the pain and death of the woman he claimed to love.)
The Fall of the Highwayman - Jellalâs suppressed rage:
Thatâs Jellal when he realises what sheâs done for him. (Or if he was allowed to know.)
Heâs always so composed, so measured, so tightly wound by guiltâbut Erza is his weakness, his light. And when that light gets hurt, or worse, when itâs extinguished because of himâŠ
This is him after Tartaros. This is him remembering the Tower of Heaven. This is the part of him that still believes Erza bleeds for his sins. And when that grief takes holdâ
âhe becomes reckless. Furious. No longer the calm strategist, no longer the repentant sinner.
Just a man in love, in pain, riding straight into hell.
Jellal doesnât let himself explode often. But when he doesâwhen the guilt and grief boil overâitâs always for her.
He would ride through death itself for her.
And he wouldnât care if it killed him.
By this point in the poem, everything around him is red. His spurs, his coatâthe world itself bleeds. Thatâs not just vivid imagery. Thatâs rage, grief, and the aftermath of love turned violent by loss.
For Jellal, that moment after Erza suffersâor if she were ever truly goneâit would be the same.
The world would turn red.
Because of her. In her absence.
Stained in what it stole.
Not just literally, but emotionally.
Heâs not the kind of man who cries or screams when he loses something. He burns. He rides straight into destruction, like itâs all he deserves. And suddenly, all that guilt heâs carried becomes weaponised by pain.
He doesnât just see red.
This stanza feels like Jellal at his limitâno longer holding back, no longer punishing himself in silence. Just grief, love, and fury wrapped in blood and velvet, riding into death with nothing left to lose.
Whatâs the point of surviving?
And thatâs exactly what leads to his end.
Just like Bess, the Highwayman meets his end.
A poetic end and a painful oneâall in the name of love. Because just like the highwayman, Jellal was always riding toward a death he thought he deserved.
And in his mind, the only thing worth dying for,
The Haunting Ending â Jerzaâs Eternity:
Even in death, their love persists.
They meet again and again, echoing through time.
Itâs just so Jerzaâthey may be apart, may suffer, but that tether between them never truly snaps. It lingers. And in every encounter, it rides again.
Even in the haunting return of the highwaymanâs spirit, Bess is there, tending to her hair, weaving a red love-knot through it. Itâs not just a romantic image. Itâs a ritual. A symbol. A memory preserved in something small, something intimate.
Erza, who holds her hair dear even when the world is falling apart. Not out of vanity but remembrance.
Who hides her softness in strength, but never stops carrying him with her.
In the poem, that red threadâthe âlove-knotââisnât just an aesthetic. Itâs what binds the lovers. And for Jerzaâitâs her hair.
Their binding scarlet thread.
Itâs her way of cherishing, of holding him close without ever needing to say a word. Her return of devotion.
And just like Bess and the highwayman, their story never really ends.
It just waits in the moonlight.
Tied in red, and braided into memory.
I know itâs not a perfect 1:1, but emotionally, spiritually, and thematically⊠itâs them.
And maybe thatâs why this poem has stuck with me for so long.
Does anyone else feel like this poem is painfully Jerza-coded, or am I just spiraling too hard?
Also, are there any books or poems that remind you of Jerza? Or just Jellal or Erza individually? Iâd love to hear other lit parallels if anyone has any!
If anyoneâs curious, thereâs a really haunting animated video of The Highwayman that stuck with me since school.
It captures the mood so well!
The video is devastatingly beautiful on its own, but with Jerza in mind it really hits differently.â€ïžâđ©č
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came ridingâ Ridingâridingâ The highwayman came riding, up to th
Hereâs the link to the full poem for anyone who wants to experience the raw eloquence and emotions first hand.
Thank you to all who have read this post.
I donât know if all this was analysis or a cry for help but either way⊠may it fuel your Jerza brain rot as much as it did mine. đ„
