The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #39964   Message #622763
Posted By: Jim Dixon
07-Jan-02 - 12:54 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Standing on deck eating goobers by peck
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Standing on deck eating goobers by p
"The boy stood on the burning deck" is the first line of an often-parodied 10-stanza sentimental-patriotic-inspirational poem called "Casabianca," (sometimes incorrectly cited as "Casablanca") by Felicia Hemans (1793 - 1835), published in 1826. You can read the complete poem here. It begins:

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 parodies are usually only one stanza. Here are some variants:

The boy stood on the burning deck
With half a sausage round his neck
A squashed tomato in his eye
And there he stood prepared to die.

The boy stood on the burning deck,
His feet were full of blisters;
He tore his pants on a rusty nail
And now he wears his sister's.

The boy stood on the burning deck,
Eating peanuts by the peck;
His mother said he would not go [or, "His father called; he would not go"]
Because he loved those peanuts so.

The boy stood on the burning deck,
Eating peanuts by the peck;
The girl beside him, sister Sue,
Said, "Wish I had a peck 'r two."

"The boy sat on the burning deck,
His feet, they touched the water."
--Longfellow

The Boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but him had fled;
The little brat was clearly not
Quite right inside the head.

The boy stood on the burning deck,
His fleece was white as snow;
He stuck a feather in his hat,
John Anderson, my Jo!…

Google gives 565 hits on the phrase "The Boy stood on the burning deck" (in quotes) so there may be more out there, but I don't have the patience to find them all.

I suspect most of these were recited as poems only, and never set to music.