In the anthology’s initial description of Hemans and her work on pages 902-903, a primary disconnect within certain themes in her writing is highlighted. On one hand, Hemans’ work contains many themes of British military conquest and imperialism, yet at the same time, her works are filled with themes of domestic bliss and female empathy. In poems such as “Casabianca”, “England’s Dead”, and “The Homes of England,” militaristic motivation/obedience is key to protecting the beauty of English domesticity. These poems stick out to me because they discuss the necessity of military violence in conversation with domestic comfort, which allows her to focus on the relationship between two very different spheres of life. I am still not entirely sure what Hemans’ intention was in discussing the relationship between these two themes, but the anthology suggests that Hemans’ writing was potentially critical of the very systems her work was initially thought to support.
The anthology further tries to make sense of this dissonance by stating, “But some of her most famous patriotic and military poems are now being viewed as critiques of the virtues and ideologies they had been thought by earlier readers to inculcate.” I had a lot of trouble deciphering the potentially critical nature of Hemans’ work, as poems such as “England’s Dead” seem so sincere and solemn, but I definitely see how a poem like “Casabianca” can be interpreted in conflicting ways.
“Casabianca” is a beautiful poem about a brave young boy who dies while standing his ground against an enemy ship. As his ship burns down, the boy asks his father if he can leave his post, yet the boy is not aware that his father is dead. With no response, the boy stays at his post and is killed in the fire. Though I initially read “Casabianca” as a poem about the courage and dedication of young soldiers in battle, because of the anthologies notes on the potentially critical nature of her writing, I can now see the poem as a piece about the danger of blind obedience within young and innocent soldiers. I am still unsure about the level of critique within much of Hemans’ work and how she intended for audiences to read her poetry. She is a poet whose intentions appear more subtly than many of the other poets we have read, and because of this, her work is uniquely engaging and also very open to interpretation.
