Old Ironsides (poem)

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"Old Ironsides" is a poem written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. on September 16, 1830, as a tribute to the USS Constitution. Thanks in part to the poem, it was saved from being decommissioned and is now the oldest commissioned ship in the world still afloat.

Old Ironsides

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;