CASABIANCA

 

Casabianca 

The boy stood on the burning deck,

Whence all but he 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 childlike 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! Say

If yet my task be done?'

He knew not that the chieftain lay

Unconscious of his son.

'Speak, father!' once again he cried,

'If I may yet be gone!

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,

'And father! Must I stay?'

While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud,

The wreathing fires made way:

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 around

With fragments strewed the sea, -

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,

That well had borne their part!

But the noblest thing that perished there,

Was that young faithful heart!

- Felicia Dorothea Hemans

 For Solved Exercises of this poem, click on the link below: 

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