At that time, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who has since become famous as a writer, was a young man twenty years of age, about completing his studies at Harvard College.
When he heard of the intended destruction of "Old Ironsides," he went directly to his room, and, inspired by patriotic feelings, wrote the following poem.
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;
Beneath it rung the battle shout
And burst the cannons' roar:
The meteor of the ocean air