a boy and his father(s)!

I could not read Hemans' Casabianca without reading into the duality of the capitalized word "Father." There is the voice of a young boy crying for the aid and comfort of his biological father, and there is the fervent prayer to the Christian "Father."

The final phrase states that "the noblest thing which perished there/ Was that young faithful hear!" We as a reader may take the word faithful and ask which father he was faithful to. The Bible says that Jesus often spoke to God and addressed him as Father most especially before his death.

Hemans highlights a disconnect between the faithful and those we put our faith in. The boys biological father is unconscious or more likely dead beneath the deck of the ship and most certainly cannot answer, but at first it seems that God has played a part in this poem. Hemans uses the language of a biblical parable in line 33, "There came a burst of thunder sound--" This could allow the reader to almost believe that God was going to finally answer. Immediately, the voice changes and now the poem asks "The boy--oh! where was he?" as if to hint that there was an answer to be heard.

Now a more practical mind would point out that the thunder sound was most likely the explosion from the gun powder in the belly of the ship, but it is once again beautiful ambivalence.