Casabianca

1. Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ poem Casabianca describes how the flames surround the boy and the ship. Hemans describes the fire in almost every other stanza. Hemans also describes the boy as a heroic figure but emphasizing that he is but a child yet he is more. Hemans describes the persistence of the boy in not leaving until he has heard his father telling him to go, over and over again when he is crying out to his father. In the last two stanzas, Hemans gave the wind a humanlike quality in asking where the boy was and finding him perished.

2. In the poem Casabianca, the flames are more dissolved into the background but the flames are what gives the poem its flow and image. In the beginning, the flames are more prominent, all around the deck with the dead, but the boy is still there, having not fled, making him out to be a courageous figure. So as the fire is burning, the boy is insistent to have his father tell him to leave, but he never will hear him, because he’s long been unconscious. This gives the image that the boy is being obedient, dutiful and faithful to his father, enduring the danger all around him, until he himself is perished in the same flames.
Casabianca’s bravery is mentioned a number of times as well. When he was standing his ground, I’m assuming he was fighting the urge to run due to his duty towards his father. Or he could have simply been too afraid to move and needed some support from his father, to hear his strong voice so he could do what he could not do without him. But Hemans describes his strength through strong words and making a simile, for example: “yet beautiful and bright he stood, as born to rule the storm;” which is in fact impossible to do, which brings me back to the conclusion that the boy was being faithful to his father.