[PW] Poem by Mrs Felicia Hemans

[Peter Macinnis]

In Australia, we know:

The boy stood on the burning deck, picking his nose like mad
Rolling it into little balls and throwing them at his Dad.

and

The boy stood on the burning deck, the deck was made of brass;
He turned a double somersault and landed on his --
Don't be mistaken, don't be misled:
He turned a double somersault and landed on his head.

Both improvements on the original, based on a true event.  To add some 
legitimacy to my comments above, in the battle of the Nile, 
thirteen-year-old Casabianca, son of the Admiral of the Orient, remained 
at his post after the ship had taken fire and all the guns had been 
abandoned. He perished when the vessel exploded, and in the early 19th 
century, this lack of independent thought was highly admired.

Plus ça change . . .

peter

Dennis Lien wrote:
> At 04:04 PM 6/8/2007, you wrote:
> 
>>Hmm. My dad used to quote it as "The boy stood on the burning deck, His
>>pants were all afire.
>>
>>Shari Haber
> 
> 
> 
> There was also:
> 
> The boy stood on the burning deck, his feet were full of blisters,
> He tore his pants on a rusty nail and so he wore his sister's.
> 
> 
> Dennis "memories of a mis-spent childhood" Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries 
> // d-lien at umn.edu 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Project Wombat
> list at project-wombat.org
> http://www.project-wombat.org/
> 


-- 

   _--|\    Peter Macinnis            petermacinnis at ozemail.com.au
  /     \   de Bergerac Reader in Comparative Nosology, and deputy
  \.--._*   cleaner, Tooleybuc School of Arts and Creative Lambence
       v    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/index.htm