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"Casabianca" is apoem by the English poetFelicia Dorothea Hemans, first published inThe Monthly Magazine, Vol 2, August 1826.^[1][2]

The poem starts:

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.

It is written inballad meter with therhyme scheme ABAB. It is about the true story of a boy who was obedient enough to wait for his father's orders, not knowing that his father is no longer alive. It is perhaps not widely realised that the boy in the poem is French and not English; his nationality is not mentioned.

The poem commemorates an actual incident that occurred in 1798 during theBattle of the Nile between British and French fleets on 1 August aboard the French flagshipL'Orient. Giocante, the young son (his age is variously given as ten,^[3] twelve^[4] and thirteen^[5][6]) of the ship's commanderLuc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca remained at his post and perished when at 22:00 the fire reached themagazine and theOrient was destroyed by a massive explosion which damaged nearby ships.^[7]

In Hemans' and other tellings of the story, young Casabianca refuses to desert his post without orders from his father. (It is sometimes said, rather improbably, that he heroically set fire to the magazine to prevent the ship's capture by the British.) It is said that he was seen by British sailors on ships attacking from both sides, but howany other details of the incident are known beyond the bare fact of the boy's death, is not clear. Hemans, not purporting to offer a history, but rather a poem inspired by the facts, writes:

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.

Hemans has him repeatedly, and heart-rendingly, calling to his father for instructions: "'say, Father, say/If yet my task is done?'" "'Speak, Father!' once again he cried/'If I may yet be gone! And'" at which point his voice is drowned out by "booming shots" until he "shouted but once more aloud/'My Father! must I stay?'" Alas, there is, of course, no response.

She concludes by commending the performances of both ship and boy:

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 was a staple of elementary school readers in the United Kingdom and the United States over a period of about a century spanning roughly the 1850s through the 1950s. It is today remembered mostly as a tag line and as a topic of parodies.^[8] Some historians^[9][10] have claimed French poets also celebrated the event – notablyAndré Chénier andPonce Denis Écouchard Lebrun – apparently without noticing that the former was executed four years before theBattle of the Nile, so could not have written about these events. These claims for literary pedigree appear spurious.

The poem is referenced inJack and Jill byLouisa May Alcott. A mother and children are discussing the actions of her son Jack, whom Jill responded that he was like Casabianca, "...a fine example of entire obedience. He obeyed orders, and that is what we all must do, without always seeing why, or daring to use our own judgement."^[11]

The story is referenced inBram Stoker'sDracula. In chapter VII, in a newspaper account of a storm, the dead pilot of the shipDemeter is compared to "the young Casabianca".^[12]

The first line of the poem serves as the title and the inspiration for the short story "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" byC. S. Forester. In this version the hero, Ed Jones, remains at his station aboard the fictitious USSBoon during theBattle of Midway. A fire started in the bilge beneath his station in the engine room, but Jones remained at his station slowly roasting while the battle rages. At the conclusion of the battle he is relieved by a damage control party. Burned, he nonetheless survives the war.^[13]

In the bookSwallowdale byArthur Ransome, the Great Aunt is outmanoeuvred when she tasks Nancy and Peggy Blackett with learning the poem, without realising they already know it.^[14]

The 1950s rock and roll song "Rock-a-way" (best known through its recording byThe Treniers) references the events of the poem and invokes the lyric "the boy who stood on the burning deck".

Generations of schoolchildren created parodies based on the poem. One, recalled byMartin Gardner, editor ofBest Remembered Poems, went:

The boy stood on the burning deck,

The flames 'round him did roar;

He found a bar of Ivory Soap

And washed himself ashore.

Another childhood parody runs:

The boy stood on the burning deck,

Amid the fiery flickers;

A spark flew up his trouser leg

And burnt away his knockers.

Spike Milligan also parodied the opening of the poem:^[15]

The boy stood on the burning deck

Whence all but he had fled -

Twit!

Eric Morecambe created another parody:

The boy stood on the burning deck

His lips were all a-quiver

He gave a cough, his leg fell off

And floated down the river.

American modernistElizabeth Bishop created a poem based on this poem called "Casabianca" too:

Love's the boy stood on the burning deck

trying to recite "The boy stood on

the burning deck." Love's the son

stood stammering elocution

while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love's the obstinate boy, the ship,

even the swimming sailors, who

would like a schoolroom platform, too,

or an excuse to stay

on deck. And love's the burning boy.

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

'Casabianca', a poem by Felicia Hemans

• Full text of the poem at UPenn'sCelebration of Women Writers
• Original text of the poem:'Casabianca' by Felicia Hemans.

• British poems
• 1826 poems
• Works originally published in The Monthly Magazine
• Poems about death
• Historical poems
• War poetry

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