A Tribute to a Tribute

Today is the 200th year anniversary of the birth of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr; a brilliant poet, author, physician, professor, and lecturer from America.

As a Harvard graduate, he pursued law briefly before settling into a medical profession. He engaged in writing at an early age, and had many of his works published to the The Atlantic Monthly (a magazine named by Oliver himself). Additionally, he won numerous honorary degrees from many universities, comparing him to many of the other Boston's literary elites such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell of whom he knew personally.

A work of his, "Old Ironsides", is a poem he wrote on September 16, 1830 as a tribute to the 18th century frigate, the USS Constitution.

Old Ironsides by Oliver Holmes

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!