casabianca

imagery:

-rolling flames

-thunder

-banners in the sky

-lone post of death

-young faithful heart

In Casabianca, Felicia Dorothea Hermans uses many different images to narrate a child’s last loyalty to his father. The boy, Casabianca, refuses to jump ship and abandon his father in the middle of a battle. The ship that Casabianca and his father remain on is burning to splinters, yet the boy remains faithful to his father. Felicia Hermans uses the imagery of fire throughout the entire poem, mentioning it in 7 of the 10 stanzas. It seems as if there is yet another battle going on between Casabianca and the fiery flames of the ship. In the first stanza, the boy is surrounded by flames, yet he does not seem to be fearful of the fire. The boy stands “bright and beautiful” on the deck of the once majestic ship. Casabianca asks his father “if yet [his] task is done,” wanting permission to withdraw from the battle. The boy does not realize his father is unconcious and cannot hear his request. As the poem goes on, the boy remains on the burning boat, awaiting anxiously awaiting his father’s reply. The flames grew rapidly as did Casabianca’s pleading cries to his father. In the fifth stanza, Hermans uses the phrase “And fast the flames rolled on.” In the seventh stanza, “the wreathing fires made way” is used to describe the fast growing flames. The flames “wrapt the ship in splendor wild” and flew like “banners in the sky” over father and son. Hermans uses a sudden bolt of thunder as representation of the fire’s victory over Casabianca. The bright, vivid fires of the ship slowly overtook the boy as he desperately called to his father. Hermans’s images of fire evolve from seemingly harmless flames to omnipotent, consuming wild blazes. The only thing strong enough to destroy Casabianca’s loyalty to his father with the blazing fire.