text: which poem does the line "the boy stood on the burning deck" come from?   you already have the title of the poem and the author.   however,  i thought i would find out something about the poem  firstly, here are the words:     the boy stood on the burning deck   whence all but he had fled; the flame that lit the battle's wreck   shone round him o'er the dead.   yet beautiful and bright he stood,   as born to rule the storm; a creature of heroic blood,   a proud, though child-like form.   the flames rolled on–he would not go   without his father's word; that father, faint in death below,   his voice no longer heard.   he called aloud–'say, father, say   if yet my task is done?' he knew not that the chieftain lay   unconscious of his son.   'speak, father!' once again he cried,   'if i may yet be gone!' and but the booming shots replied,   and fast the flames rolled on.   upon his brow he felt their breath,   and in his waving hair, and looked from that lone post of death   in still yet brave despair.   and shouted but once more aloud,   'my father! must i stay?' while o'er him fast, through sail and shroud,   the wreathing fires made way.   they wrapt the ship in splendour wild,   they caught the flag on high, and streamed above the gallant child,   like banners in the sky.   there came a burst of thunder sound–    the boy–oh! where was he? ask of the winds that far around   with fragments strewed the sea!–   with mast, and helm, and pennon fair,   that well had borne their part– but the noblest thing which perished there   was that young faithful heart.  ******************************** casabianca is a poem written in the early 19th century by british poet felicia hemans (who was, before about 1950, generally credited as "mrs. hemans" or "mrs. f. d. hemans"). the title of the poem is far, far less familiar than its first line: "the boy stood on the burning deck".  this poem was a staple of elementary school readers in the united states over a period of about a century spanning, roughly, the 1850s through the 1950s. so often memorized and recited as to lose any shred of meaning or emotion, it is today remembered mostly as a tag line and as a topic of parodies.  the poem opens:      the boy stood on the burning deck         whence all but he had fled;     the flame that lit the battle's wreck         shone round him o'er the dead.   the poem commemorates an actual incident that occurred in 1798 during the battle of the nile aboard the french ship l'orient. the young son giocante (his age is variously given as ten, twelve and thirteen) of commander louis de casabianca remained at his post and perished when the flames caused the magazine to explode.  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 not clear how any details of the incident are known beyond the bare fact of the boy's death. hemans, not purporting to offer a history, but rather a poem inspired by the bare facts, writes:      the flames rolled on—he would not go         without his father's word;     that father, faint in death below,         his voice no longer heard.   hemans has him repeatedly, and heart-wrenchingly, 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 "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:      with mast, and helm, and pennon fair,         that well had borne their part—     but the noblest thing which perished there         was