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"Casabianca" is a poem by the English poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans, first published in The Monthly Magazine , Vol 2, August 1826. [1]
The poem starts:
It is written in ballad meter, rhyming 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 the Battle of the Nile between British and French fleets on 1 August aboard the French flagship L'Orient. Giocante, the young son (his age is variously given as ten, [2] twelve [3] and thirteen [4] [5] ) of the ship's commander Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca remained at his post and perished when at 22:00 the fire reached the magazine and the Orient was destroyed by a massive explosion which damaged nearby ships. [6]
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 how any 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:
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:
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. [7] Perhaps to justify its embedding in English-speaking culture, modern editors [8] [9] often claim French poets also celebrated the event – notably André Chénier and Écouchard Lebrun – apparently without noticing that the former was executed four years before the Battle of the Nile, so could not have written about these events. These claims for literary pedigree appear spurious.
The story is referenced in Bram Stoker's Dracula . In chapter VII, in a newspaper account of a storm, the dead pilot of the ship Demeter is compared to "the young Casabianca". [10]
The poem is also referenced in Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock where one of the schoolgirls, Irma Leopold, recites the poem to Edith before disappearing on the Rock.
The mis-attribution of the poem serves as both a key plot device, and a running gag, in P.G. Wodehouse's The Luck of the Bodkins (1935).
In Ian Fleming's 1955 novel Moonraker , James Bond prepares to sacrifice himself to save London from a nuclear weapon. He says, "The boy stood on the burning deck. I've wanted to copy him since I was five."
In Agatha Christie's The Secret of Chimneys Anthony Cade says that he might recite ‘The boy stood on the burning deck’ at a pinch.
The first line of the poem serves as the title and the inspiration for the short story "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" by C. S. Forester. In this version the hero, Ed Jones, remains at his station aboard the fictitious USS Boon during the Battle 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. [11]
In Season 2, Episode 34 of The Rifleman , Mark McCain recites portions of the poem. He is memorizing it for a school assignment.
In the 117th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man , Spider-Man jokes, "Wish I could think of a real quotable exit speech, group. But all I know is 'The boy stood on the burning deck.' And that's been said before."
In Season 14, Episode 99 of The Bill , the character Frank Burnside recites the following parody of the poem:
The character's recital is cut off before he could say the word "bollocks".
In the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , Peter Guillam is heard reciting the opening lines as he and George Smiley check microphones in a safe house.
In the book Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, the Great Aunt is outmanoeuvered when she tasks Nancy and Peggy Blackett with learning the poem, without realising they already know it. [12]
Generations of schoolchildren created parodies based on the poem. One, recalled by Martin Gardner, editor of Best Remembered Poems, went:
Spike Milligan also parodied the opening of the poem: [13]
Eric Morecambe created another parody:
American modernist Elizabeth Bishop created a poem based on this poem called "Casabianca" too:
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from the 1st to the 3rd of August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had raged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
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Felicia Dorothea Hemans was an English poet. Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic status.
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The Swallows and Amazons series is a series of twelve children's adventure novels by English author Arthur Ransome. Set in the interwar period, the novels involve group adventures by children, mainly in the school holidays and mainly in England. They revolve around outdoor activities, especially sailing. Literary critic Peter Hunt believes it "changed British literature, affected a whole generation's view of holidays, helped to create the national image of the English Lake District and added Arthur Ransome's name to the select list of classic British children's authors." The series remains popular and inspires visits to the Lake District and Norfolk Broads, where many of the books are set.
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Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca was an officer of the French Navy in the 18th century. He was killed at the Battle of the Nile.
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Orient was an Océan-class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, famous for her role as flagship of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798, and for her spectacular destruction that day when her magazine exploded. The event was commemorated by numerous poems and paintings.
Events from the year 1826 in the United Kingdom.
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