The Strongest Flame Amongst the Inferno

Casabianca by: Felicia Dorothea Hemans

List of imagery: burning deck, flame that lit the battle's wreck, flames rolled on, over him sail and shroud with wreathing flames wrapt the ship and streamed above the ship like banners in the sky, storm, fragments of the ship all around, dead all around, a childlike form, a gallant child

             In the poem Casabiance by Felicia Dorothea Hemans, Hemans employs imagery to illustrate the strength of one child. Heman begins the poem by depicting a lone boy standing “beautiful and bright”, while surrounded by flames and death. He calls him “a creature of heroic blood” that possesses a proud form.  The poem depicts a grand scene, in which amidst chaos and despair a young man’s hope and courage burns stronger than the inferno around him.

                Heman explains how the flame “wrapt the ship in splendor wild” and “streamed above the gallant child, like banners in the sky”. He makes a clear effort to create the image of a veil of flame surrounding the boy that even covers the sky. Heman possibly conveys that epic courage and heroism can only be seen, when surrounded by ordinarily amazing spectacles. Through this scene, he creates both contrast and comparison by placing the flames around the boy. He contrasts the threatening danger around the boy with the boy’s courageous and brave search for his father. During which, the similarity between the heat and passion that drives a person to look for someone dear to them is connected to immensity of the flame. These flames within the poem represent passion, size, fear, and purity. Flames are a pure form of energy that is unhindered. Similarly children, like the one in the poem, are perceived to be pure and unhindered. Flames also invoke great fear and energy within the people affected by them.

                Herman uses the image of fire to express why he says the “the noblest thing that perished there was that young, faithful heart”. His comparison between flame and the boy creates the image of a boy that possessed the courage, strength, purity, passion, and heart of an inferno. The light that the boy generated during the storm was brighter than the flame surrounding him. The hope that the boy had that his father was still alive was a flame strong enough to stay alive, even in that hellish situation.