OLD IRONSIDES
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) had a varied
and highly successful career. He was a medical
doctor, the Dean of Harvard Medical School, an
essayist, and a respected poet. His son, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Jr. would go on to be Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court. Like Bryant, he became strongly
associated with New England and the Fireside Poets.
Also like Bryant, he worked in traditional poetic forms
reminiscent of earlier British poets.