"The harpies of the shore..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
From Greek mythology, Harpies are half-human, half-bird monsters that were initially considered to be wind spirits. While harpies are occasionally portrayed as beautiful maidens with wings, most writers describe them as hideous and vulgar monsters that steal victims’ food and carry evildoers off to be punished by the Erinyes.
The pronoun “her” refers to the title of the poem, “Old Ironsides,” which alludes to the U.S.S. Constitution, a former frigate of the United States Navy and the oldest commissioned naval ship in the world. It was launched in 1797 to protect American merchant ships during the Quasi-War with France (1798–1800) and to fight pirates in the First Barbary War (1801–1805). Ships were normally decommissioned after ten or fifteen years, but the U.S.S. Constitution was involved in multiple military victories throughout the 1810s and became a symbol of national pride. When rumors spread that the ship was being “scrapped” in 1830, Oliver Wendell Holmes published the poem “Old Ironsides” and stirred such public outrage that the ship received $157,000 in repairs.
