Old Ironsides
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!Long has it waved on high,And many an eye has danced to seeThat banner in the sky;Beneath it rung the battle shout,And burst the cannon’s roar;--The meteor of the ocean airShall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,Where knelt the vanquished foe,When winds were hurrying o’er the floodAnd waves were white below.No more shall feel the victor’s tread,Or know the conquered knee;The harpies of the shore shall pluckThe eagle of the sea!
O, better that her shattered hulkShould 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!
Words in this poem
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- hulk n.
- The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. Wolf, Holcad.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- threadbare a.
- Worn to the naked thread; having the nap worn off; threadbare clothes.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Ironsides is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Old Ironsides, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/old-ironsides.html, id L25196.
Form and metre
Old Ironsides is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AAA-B-B down · highA · seeA · skyA · shout · roarB · air · moreB
- 2 ABAB-C-C bloodA · foeB · floodA · belowB · tread · kneeC · pluck · seaC
- 3 -A-A-B-B hulk · waveA · deep · graveA · flag · sailB · storms · galeB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Long has it waved on high, | 6 | ······ |
| And many an eye has danced to see | 8 | ·/······ |
| That banner in the sky; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Beneath it rung the battle shout, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And burst the cannon’s roar;-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The meteor of the ocean air | 8 | ·/˘˘··/· |
| Shall sweep the clouds no more. | 6 | ······ |
| Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where knelt the vanquished foe, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When winds were hurrying o’er the flood | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And waves were white below. | 6 | ······ |
| No more shall feel the victor’s tread, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or know the conquered knee; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The harpies of the shore shall pluck | 7 | ······· |
| The eagle of the sea! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| O, better that her shattered hulk | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Should sink beneath the wave; | 6 | ······ |
| Her thunders shook the mighty deep, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And there should be her grave; | 6 | ······ |
| Nail to the mast her holy flag, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Set every threadbare sail, | 7 | ·/˘˘/·· |
| And give her to the god of storms, | 8 | ········ |
| The lightning and the gale! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.