Casabianca
Felicia Hemans, 1826
Felicia Hemans’s poem about the boy Casabianca, son of a French captain, who would not leave his post on the burning deck of his father’s ship at the Battle of the Nile.
The boy stood on the burning deckWhence all but him had fled;The flame that lit the battle’s wreck,Shone round him o’er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood,As born to rule the storm;A creature of heroic blood,A proud, though child-like form.
The flames rolled on—he would not go,Without his Father’s word;That Father, faint in death below,His voice no longer heard.
He called aloud:—“say, Father, sayIf yet my task is done?”He knew not that the chieftain layUnconscious of his son.
“Speak, Father!” once again he cried,“If I may yet begone!And”—but the booming shots replied,And fast the flames rolled on.
Upon his brow he felt their breath,And in his waving hair,And looked from that lone post of death,In still, yet brave despair.
And shouted but once more aloud,“My Father! must I stay?”While o’er him fast, through sail and shroud,The wreathing fires made way.
They wrapt the ship in splendour wild,They caught the flag on high,And streamed above the gallant child,Like banners in the sky.
There came a burst of thunder sound—The boy—oh! where was he?Ask of the winds that far aroundWith fragments strewed the sea!
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,That well had borne their part—But the noblest thing which perished thereWas that young faithful heart!