Question

Old Ironsides
by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Launched in 1794, the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides," was due to be scrapped after an 1830 inspection. Public outcry—much of it inspired by Holmes’s poem—led to the ship’s reconstruction, and it remains afloat today.

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;—
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag.
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

Answer 1

Thanks — that’s Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “Old Ironsides.” What would you like me to do with it? Here are some options I can help with:

- Short summary of the poem
- Line-by-line or stanza-by-stanza paraphrase in modern English
- Literary analysis (themes, tone, imagery, rhetorical devices)
- Historical/contextual background (why it mattered in 1830, effect of the poem)
- Meter and rhyme/scan the poem
- Performance tips (how to read it aloud)
- Classroom materials (discussion questions, quiz items, essay prompts)
- Write a modern or alternate-version poem inspired by it

If you prefer, I can start with a very brief summary and one-sentence note on its historical impact. Which would you like?