A Young Faithful Heart

A few poems have caught my attention this semester as we have moved forward. Casabianca is a traditional, classic poem. I think that it deserves literary merit because it is well known and liked. I, not really being a fan of poetry like I mentioned in a different post, actually enjoyed this poem.

Something about the depth of the poem and the emotion that is felt as the young boy in the story dies with the ship.

 

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 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, say
If yet my task is 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,
'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 around
With fragments strewed the sea!–

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part–
But the noblest thing which perished there
Was that young faithful heart.

 

This poem is a sad but heroic story about a young boy who dies with a ship. He is waiting for his father’s signal that his task of staying with the ship is finished, but it never comes since the ship is burning and his father has already perished. The young man sinks with the ship never leaving his “task” because he never received word to do so: the lines below really help the reader to see the young boys loyalty to the ship and his task.

“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 is done?'”

In this work there also some good consonance used. “but the booming” we really hear that b- sound coming out. “ship the splendor” would be another good example of consonance. A few others would be: “father, faint”, “fast the flames” and “he had”.

The last two lines of the poem I feel are a powerful ending and sum up the poem wonderfully as a whole. The author lets us remember and/or think that the boy was nobler than the ship or his other crewmates. When I read this poem, I image a young pirate boy, being loyal until the end.

“But the noblest thing which perished there
Was that young faithful heart.”