"Casabianca" by Felicia Hemas

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The poem that I liked most is “Casabianca” by Felicia Hemas, which is about a brave young boy who refused to abandon his post on a burning ship until his death.

Some of the imagery in the poem included descriptions of the boy. The poem reflected many aspects of his being including his childlikeness, beauty (with his waving hair, and being surrounded by fire), his fear, and most importantly, his bravery. Other imagery included death and loneliness surrounding the boy.

However, perhaps the most prominent recurring imagery in the poem was the fire. The fire was described in terms that made it seem like an all powerful, all consuming force. Over the course of the poem, the fire grew in its enveloping ferocity and power. In the first stanza, the reader is first introduced to the “Flame that lit the battle’s wreck”, that “shone round him [the boy]” and that burned “o’er the dead.” Here the flame is already portrayed as fearsome and engulfing. Such imagery helps to set up the second stanza, which is devoted to describing the bravery of the boy. The flame imagery greatly enhances the bravery of a boy who refused to abandon his post.

At the same time, the activity and liveliness of the flame is contrasted with the imagery of death. In the poem, the author implies that the boy is the only person alive on the boat. Everybody else onboard is dead, including his father. On the other hand, the flame is moving and alive. Lines such as “the flame rolled on” (stanza 3) or “he [the boy] felt their breath” (stanza 6) serve to emphasize this quality of the flame.

Finally, the flame is ultimately not only a contrast to death but also the cause of death and destruction, both of the ship and the boy. In stanza 8, the flames “wrapt the ship in splendour wild” and “caught the flag on high”. With these lines, the flame is shown to be consuming the ship in a beautiful but destructive way. In the end, “there came a burst of thunder sound” and “fragments strewed the sea.” These lines from stanza 9 allow the reader to imagine the explosion, the culmination of the fire’s destruction.