Oliver Wendell Holmes American writer, poet 1809-1894   Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, MA, in 1809. He was a distinguished American author and man of letters. He published one or two novels, besides essays and poems, but is best known for his three works, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "The Professor at the Breakfast Table," and "The Poet at the Breakfast Table." These first appeared in a magazine called the "Atlantic Monthly," and are full of quaint knowledge, along with the breadth of thought, and genial humor which will keep them favorites wherever the English language is spoken. In 1830, he found out that the U.S. Navy was going to scrap the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides was famous for defeating the British frigate Guerriere in the war of 1812.) Because of this poem, the ship was saved and is the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy. He died October 7, 1894. A son--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.,was a justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell 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

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