when was emma lazarus' poem put on statue of liberty
The New Colossus. The New Colossus is a sonnet that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849â1887) wrote in 1883 to raise money for the construction of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level. 1 History of the poem.