From the lone post of Death

List:

Flame that lit the battles wreck

As born to rule the storm

A Creature of heroic blood

A proud though childlike form

Upon his brow he felt their breath (flames)

And looked from that lone post of death

Gallant child

Like banners in the sky

The young and faithful heart

Still yet brave despair

Repetitive imagery: flames, destruction, death, bright/heroic/beautiful/child

In the poem Casabianca, Hemans use of imagery captures the reader’s attention through the irony of the scene she paints. Despite the shipwreck that is eaten by flames and covered with the dead, there remains a young boy whose loyalty to his father causes him to remain in “brave despair.” The imagery about the flames, destruction, and the storm are continuous throughout the poem and are only interrupted by descriptions of the boy on the boat calling out to his dead Father. “The boy stood on the burning deck/ whence all but him had fled/the flame that lit the battle’s wreck/shone round him o’er the dead” is the very opening stanza that sets the scene of the destruction surrounding the boy. The setting in which the boy stands becomes very clear to the reader and makes it easy to imagine the devastation. My favorite use of imagery that Heman uses to describe the flames is when she writes, “and fast the flames rolled on/upon his brow he felt their breath/ and in his waving hair.” The reader is really able to feel like he or she is on the boat when she depicts the boy feeling the breath of the flames. In contrast to the obvious picture of death and ruin, the writings about the boy are beautiful and full of youth and innocence. The second stanza that says, “Yet beautiful and bright he stood/as born to rule the storm/a creature of heroic blood/a proud and childlike form” implies that the boy, though young, appears to be proud and fearless in the face of certain death. Each line is so beautifully constructed as to give the reader an image of all that is good in a human, surrounded by so much sadness and wreckage. Another pattern in the poem is simply that the boy keeps calling out to the father and refusing to leave until he responds. The poem continually paints the boy as a brave, loyal, proud, faithful, and gallant child but always returns to the theme of despair around him. This causes the reader to respect and admire the boy but to also feel that his case is helpless.