The New Colossus speaks of the Statue of Liberty as the beacon of hope that greets immigrants who passed it on their way to a new life in the New World. One of the fundraisers for the statue’s pedestal asked poet Emma Lazarus to write a poem to help in the construction. After initially refusing, she penned the 14 lines that have become immortal and are stamped on a bronze plaque inside the statue. In particular, the words ‘Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’, have come to be seen as the embodiment of American’s openness. As such, many experts believe that Lazarus’s poem changed the symbolism of the statue from ‘liberty’ to ‘welcome to America’.