EMMA LAZARUS; FAMOUS POEM :"THE NEW COLOSSUS" Statue of Liberty National Monument Emma Lazarus Famous Poem A poem by Emma Lazarus is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" History of Liberty State Park The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Photos On the New York Harbor, less than 2,000 feet from the Statue of Liberty, Liberty State Park has served a vital role in the development of New Jersey's metropolitan region and the history of the nation.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries the area that is now Liberty State Park was a major waterfront industrial area with an extensive freight and passenger transportation network. This network became the lifeline of New York City and the harbor area. The heart of this transportation network was the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal (CRRNJ), located in the northern portion of the park. The CRRNJ Terminal stands with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to unfold one of this nation's most dramatic stories: the immigration of northern, southern, and eastern Europeans into the United States. After being greeted by the Statue of Liberty and processed at Ellis Island, these immigrants purchased tickets and boarded trains, at the CRRNJ Terminal, that took them to their new homes throughout the United States. The Terminal served these immigrants as the gateway to the realization of their hopes and dreams of a new life in America. Today, Liberty State Park continues to serve a vital role in the New York Harbor area. As the railroads and industry declined, the land was abandoned and became a desolate dump site. With the development of Liberty State Park came a renaissance of the waterfront.

Land with decaying buildings, overgrown tracks and piles of debris was transformed into a modern urban state park. The park was formerly opened on Flag Day, June 14, 1976, as New Jersey's bicentennial gift to the nation. Most of this 1,122 acre park is open space with approximately 300 acres developed for public recreation. Emma Lazarus, Poet of the Huddled Masses : NPR Emma Lazarus, Poet of the Huddled Masses Embed Embed Emma Lazarus, Poet of the Huddled Masses Emma Lazarus, Poet of the Huddled Masses Embed Embed This sketch of Emma Lazarus was made in about 1880, when she was about 30 years old. The poet lived from 1849-1887. Scroll down to see some of Lazarus' poetry Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Hulton Archive/Getty Images This sketch of Emma Lazarus was made in about 1880, when she was about 30 years old. The poet lived from 1849-1887.

Scroll down to see some of Lazarus' poetry Hulton Archive/Getty Images In her poem The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus created what stood for years as an American credo. You know the words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." The words of the poem were engraved on a bronze plaque hung in the Statue of Liberty museum 20 years after her death. To many, the verse expressed the governing U.S. attitude toward immigrants: welcome. But today, a new debate over immigration is dominating the political debate. So it's a good time to take a new look at the writer. Esther Schor, poet and professor of English at Princeton University, offers that chance with a new biography: Emma Lazarus. Lazarus was a Sephardic Jew, a descendant of people expelled from Spain centuries before. She often wrote about the "Jewish plight" in her poetry. She was an early Jewish nationalist — advocating for a Jewish state in Palestine as early as the 1880s. Near the end of her life she became an advocate for disenfranchised immigrants, who were arriving by the thousands in the late 1800s.

She wrote The New Colossus at age 34. Less than five years later she was dead of cancer, never knowing the impact her poem had on the nation. Article continues after sponsorship October 21, 200611:16 AM ET Three of Emma Lazarus' poems, including her most famous, The New Colossus: The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset fates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Heroes The scarlet creeper reddens over graves, Among the solemn trees enlooped with vines; Heroic spirits haunt the solitudes, — The noble souls of half a million braves, Amid the murmurous pines. Ah! who is left behind, Earnest and eloquent, sincere and strong, To consecrate their memories with words Not all unmeet? with fitting dirge and song To chant a requiem purer than the wind, And sweeter than the birds? Here, though all seems at peace, The placid, measureless sky serenely fair, The laughter of the breeze among the leaves, The bars of sunlight slanting through the trees, The reckless wild-flowers blooming everywhere, The grasses' delicate sheaves, — Nathless each breeze that blows, Each tree that trembles to its leafy head With nervous life, revives within our mind, Tender as flowers of May, the thoughts of those Who lie beneath the living beauty, dead, — Beneath the sunshine, blind.

For brave dead soldiers, these: Blessings and tears of aching thankfulness, Soft flowers for the graves in wreaths enwove, The odorous lilac of dear memories, The heroic blossoms of the wilderness, And the rich rose of love. But who has sung their praise, Not less illustrious, who are living yet? Armies of heroes, satisfied to pass Calmly, serenely from the whole world's gaze, And cheerfully accept, without regret, Their old life as it was, With all its petty pain, Its irritating littleness and care; They who have scaled the mountain, with content Sublime, descend to live upon the plain; Steadfast as though they breathed the mountain-air Still, wheresoe'er they went. They who were brave to act, And rich enough their action to forget; Who, having filled their day with chivalry, Withdraw and keep their simpleness intact, And all unconscious add more luster yet Unto their victory.

On the broad Western plains Their patriarchal life they live anew; Hunters as mighty as the men of old, Or harvesting the plenteous, yellow grains, Gathering ripe vintage of dusk bunches blue, Or working mines of gold; Or toiling in the town, Armed against hindrance, weariness, defeat, With dauntless purpose not to swerve or yield, And calm, defiant strength, they struggle on, As sturdy and as valiant in the street, As in the camp and field. And those condemned to live, Maimed, helpless, lingering still through suffering years, May they not envy now the restful sleep Of the dear fellow-martyrs they survive? Not o'er the dead, but over these, your tears, O brothers, ye may weep! New England fields I see, The lovely, cultured landscape, waving grain, Wide, haughty rivers, and pale, English skies. And lo!

A farmer ploughing busily, Who lifts a swart face, looks upon the plain, — I see, in his frank eyes, Thus in the common fields and streets they stand; The light that on the past and distant gleams, They cast upon the present and the near, With antique virtues from some mystic land, Of knightly deeds and dreams. Crowing of the Red Cock Across the Eastern sky has flowed The flicker of a blood-red dawn, Once more the clarion cock has crowed, Once more the sword of Christ is drawn. A million burning rooftrees light The world-wide path of Israel's flight. Where is the Hebrew's fatherland? The folk of Christ is sore bestead; The Son of Man is bruised and banned, Nor finds whereon to lay his head. His cup is gall, his meat is tears, His passion lasts a thousand years. Each crime that wakes in man the beast, Is visited upon his kind. The lust of mobs, the greed of priest, The tyranny of kings, combined To root his seed from earth again, His record is one cry of pain.

When the long roll of Christian guilt Against his sires and kin is known, The flood of tears, the life-blood split, The agony of ages shown, What oceans can the stain remove, From Christian law and Christian love? Nay, close the book; not now, not here, The hideous tale of sin narrate, Reechoing in the martyr's ear, Even he might nurse revengeful hate, Even he might turn in wrath sublime, With blood for blood and crime for crime. Coward? Not he, who faces death, Who singly against worlds has fought, For what? A name he may not breathe, For liberty of prayer and thought. The angry sword he will not whet, His nobler task is — to forget. Message of the State of Liberty MESSAGE OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY The Promise of the Golden Door "A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, Mother of Exiles." Julie Please visit LIGHT OMEGA RESOURCES and WELCOME to Light Omega for more. The Statue of Liberty faces outward toward the nations, holding aloft the torch of freedom, the flame of hope, the promise of the future.

She holds this torch high in the daytime and during the night as well. She shines her light in the midst of darkness. This symbol of freedom and hope was presented by the people of France to the people of the United States in 1886 in honor of the friendship between the two nations. Yet, the Statue belongs to all people. Her message is universal, speaking to the hearts of those who cherish freedom everywhere. Liberty's image is one of strength, majesty, and hope, visible in her eternally raised right arm which carries the torch of freedom. Holding aloft a light that never fails, she represents hope to the hopeless, welcome to the poor, courage to the meek. Facing outward toward the ocean, her lamp is a beacon on stormy seas, drawing to her shores, those from afar who seek a better life. For these, and for countless others who embrace her message, the Statue of Liberty represents the Golden Door. What is the Golden Door? It is the entrance into liberty and freedom from oppression that is the promise of America - a land, a people, a way of life.

It is also the freedom of spirit and of choice that was declared an inalienable right in the Declaration of Independence - a document whose date of execution, July 4th, 1776, is inscribed on the tablet she carries. The Statue welcomes all to this door - the lost, the needy, the rejected, the exiled. She invites them to step through it into freedom. Liberty's comforting presence is increasingly needed when the sea of world events becomes more stormy, the waves higher. In times of turbulence, her light is reassuring, her presence, a guarantor of safety. Immortalized in the poem of Emma Lazarus, the Statue speaks eternally the words of compassion: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." These words from the "The New Colossus," written in 1883, appear on the Statue's pedestal. "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" The Statue of Liberty was originally called "Liberty Enlightening the World," and this is truly her task - to enlighten mankind to the noble ideals of freedom and equality that belong to each one, and to hold high the standard of hope that light will always triumph over darkness. This is the promise represented in the Statue - that through every conflict, war, or loss, through every dispossession or abandonment of principle, the torch of freedom will continue to be held high. The New Colossus The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883 Click here to return to the interpretation of the poem Emma Lazarus | Jewish Women's Archive by Diane Lichtenstein “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” proclaims the “Mother of Exiles” in Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus.

“Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” proclaims the “Mother of Exiles” in Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus.” Her best-known contribution to mainstream American literature and culture, the poem has contributed to the belief that America means opportunity and freedom for Jews, as well as for other “huddled masses.” Through this celebration of the “other,” Lazarus conveyed her deepest loyalty to the best of both America and Judaism. Born on July 22, 1849, Lazarus was the fourth of Esther (Nathan) and Moses Lazarus’s seven children. She grew up in New York and Newport, Rhode Island, and was educated by private tutors with whom she studied mythology, music, American poetry, European literature, German, French, and Italian. Her father, who was a successful sugar merchant, supported her writing financially as well as emotionally.

In 1866, when Emma was only seventeen, Moses had Poems and Translations: Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen printed “for private circulation.” Daughter Emma dedicated the volume “To My Father.” Soon after Poems and Translations was published, Lazarus met Ralph Waldo Emerson. The two corresponded until Emerson’s death in 1882. During the early years of their relationship, Lazarus turned to Emerson as her mentor, and he in turn praised and encouraged her writing. In 1871, when she published Admetus and Other Poems, she dedicated the title poem “To My Friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Despite his support, Emerson failed to include any of Lazarus’s poetry in his 1874 anthology, Parnassus, but he did include authors such as Harriet Prescott Spofford and Julia C.R. Dorr. Lazarus responded with an uncharacteristically angry letter and subsequently modified her idealized image of Emerson. However, student and mentor obviously reconciled; in 1876, Lazarus visited the Emersons in Concord, Massachusetts.

Admetus and Other Poems includes “In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport” and “How Long” as well as translations from the Italian and German (Goethe and Heine). “In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport” echoes in form and meter Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport.” Yet where Longfellow’s meditation closes with “the dead nations never rise again,” Lazarus’s reverie concludes by announcing that “the sacred shrine is holy yet.” “In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport” is one of Lazarus’s earliest creative expressions of a Jewish consciousness. “How Long” is significant because its proclamation of the need for a “yet unheard of strain,” one suitable to prairies, plains, wilderness, and snow-peaked mountains, places Lazarus among those mid-nineteenth-century American writers who wanted to create literature that did not depend on British outlines. Lazarus published her next book, Alide: An Episode of Goethe’s Life, in 1874. Her only novel, Alide is based on Goethe’s own autobiographical writings and focuses on a love affair between the young Goethe and a country woman.

The lovers part at the end, because the poet must be free to fulfill his “sacred office.” Lazarus’s only other piece of fiction, a story titled “The Eleventh Hour,” was published in 1878 in Scribner’s. The story raises questions about the needs and rights of the artist, like Alide, and about the status of American art, like “How Long.” In 1876, Lazarus privately published The Spagnoletto, a tragic verse drama. Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Lazarus’s poems appeared in American magazines. Among these are “Outside the Church” (1872) in Index; “Phantasmagoria” (1876) and “The Christmas Tree” (1877) in Lippincott’s; “The Taming of the Falcon” (1879) in the Century; and “Progress and Poverty” (1881) in the New York Times. Lazarus’s most productive period was the early 1880s.

In addition to numerous magazine poems, essays, and letters, she published a highly respected volume of translations, Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, in 1881, and Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems, in 1882. This was also the period in which Lazarus most obviously spoke out as self-identified Jew and American writer simultaneously. Until this period, Lazarus’s “interest and sympathies were loyal to [her] race,” but, as she explained in 1877, “my religious convictions ... and the circumstances of my life have led me somewhat apart from my people.” Although her family did belong to the Sephardic Shearith Israel synagogue in New York, and she did write “In the Jewish Synagogue in Newport” when she was young, it appears that learning of the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s kindled Lazarus’s commitment to Judaism. This change in attitude is evident in her writing, as well as in her work with the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society—meeting Eastern European immigrants on Wards Island—and in her efforts to help establish the Hebrew Technical Institute and agricultural communities for Eastern European Jews in the United States.

Songs of a Semite was published by the American Hebrew. The title, as well as many of the poems in the collection, publicly proclaimed Lazarus’s identity as a Jewish poet. In that role, Lazarus battled against both anti-Semitic non-Jews and complacent Jews. In “The Banner of the Jew,” she urged “Israel” to “Recall to-day / The glorious Maccabean rage,” and she reminded readers that “With Moses’s law and David’s lyre” Israel’s “ancient strength remains unbent.” And in The Dance to Death, a poetic dramatization of Richard Reinhard’s 1877 prose narrative Der Tanz zum Tode, Lazarus celebrated the courage and faith of the Jews who were condemned to die in Nordhausen, Germany, in 1349 for allegedly causing the plague. The Dance to Death was dedicated to George Eliot, “who did most among the artists of our day towards elevating and ennobling the spirit of Jewish nationality” with her novel Daniel Deronda. Lazarus published Songs of a Semite in the same year that she adopted a more public Jewish identity in the realm of American magazines, particularly in the Century.

Three essays published in that magazine over a ten-month period attest to Lazarus’s concerns. In the first, “Was the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?” (April 1882), Lazarus offered an ambivalent portrait of Benjamin Disraeli; she defined “representative” as embodying the best as well as the worst of Jewish traits. In the second essay, “Russian Christianity vs. Modern Judaism” (May 1882), Lazarus included a personal plea for informed understanding of Russian Jews and their situation. And in the third essay, “The Jewish Problem” (February 1883), she observed that Jews, who are always in the minority, “seem fated to excite the antagonism of their fellow countrymen.” To this problem she offered a solution: the founding of a state by Jews for Jews in Palestine. Lazarus promoted Zionism throughout the 1880s. Although Lazarus had published occasionally in the Jewish press, she became a regular contributor to the American Hebrew in the early 1880s.

This weekly, edited by Philip Cowan, printed “Judaism the Connecting Link Between Science and Religion” and “The Schiff Refuge” in 1882, “An Epistle to the Hebrews” in 1882–1883, “Cruel Bigotry” in 1883, and “The Last National Revolt of the Jews” as well as “M. Renan and the Jews”—an essay, which won first prize in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Young Men’s Hebrew Association—in 1884. In “An Epistle to the Hebrews,” a series of fifteen open letters that appeared between November 1882 and February 1883, Lazarus suggested that assimilated American Jews should recognize their privileged status as well as their vulnerability in America, that all Jews should understand their history in order not to be misled by anti-Semitic generalizations, and that Eastern European Jews should emigrate to Palestine. At the same time that Lazarus was writing more self-consciously as a Jew, she was also writing as an American.

Her 1881 essay “American Literature” (Critic) defended American literature against the charge that America had no literary tradition and that America’s poets had left no mark. “American Literature” was followed by “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow” (American Hebrew) and the eulogy “Emerson’s Personality,” both published in 1882. The latter appeared in the Century, three months after “Was the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?” and two months after “Russian Christianity vs. Modern Judaism.” Lazarus also published the poem “To R.W.E.” in 1884 (Critic). Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883 “for the occasion” of an auction to raise money for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. The poem was singled out and printed in the Catalogue of the Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition at the National Academy of Design because event organizers hoped it would “awaken to new enthusiasm” those working on behalf of the pedestal. In the following year, Lazarus published the essay “The Poet Heine” in the Century.

Lazarus explained her fascination with Heine, born a Jew and later baptized and educated as a Catholic: “A fatal and irreconcilable dualism formed the basis of Heine’s nature.... He was a Jew, with the mind and eyes of a Greek.” Lazarus admired Heine’s ability to understand the “internal incongruity” of his mind as well as his Jewish “pathos” and worldly sensibilility. Lazarus traveled to Europe twice, the first time in 1883. During her stay in England and France, she met Robert Browning, William Morris, and Jewish leaders. Her essay “A Day in Surrey with William Morris” (the Century, 1886) paints a positive portrait of the English socialist. Noting that Morris’s “extreme socialistic convictions” elicited criticism, Lazarus explained that English inequalities were more “glaring” than American ones and therefore more in need of dramatic reform. Lazarus’s second trip to Europe was a longer one, lasting from May 1885 until September 1887.

According to her sister Josephine Lazarus ’s biographical sketch, Emma “decided to go abroad again as the best means of regaining composure and strength” after Moses Lazarus died in March 1885. This journey included visits to England, France, Holland, and Italy. Lazarus returned to New York very ill, probably with cancer. She died two months later, on November 19, 1887. Two of Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Annie, published The Poems of Emma Lazarus, I and II posthumously, in 1888. Volume I contains the biographical sketch written by sister Josephine. In the same year, the sketch also appeared in the Century. Volume II includes her final work, “By the Waters in Babylon, Little Poems in Prose,” which had previously appeared in the Century in March 1887. This set of prose-poems suggests that Lazarus was exploring new directions for her art. Volume II also contains translations of “Hebrew poets of mediaeval Spain,” Solomon Ben Judah Gabirol, Abul Hassan Judah Ben Ha-Levi, and Moses Ben Ezra. Lazarus’s work received consistently positive reviews.

By the late 1870s and 1880s, American writers and readers knew Lazarus as a frequent contributor to periodicals such as Lippincott’s, the Century, and the American Hebrew. She corresponded with writers and thinkers of the time, including Ivan Turgenev, William James, Robert Browning, and James Russell Lowell. When she died, the American Hebrew published the “Emma Lazarus Memorial Number.” In it, John Hay, John Jay Whittier, and Cyrus Sulzberger, among others, praised Lazarus for her contributions to American literature as well as to “her own race and kindred.” Lazarus dedicated her life to her work. Yet she still had to contend with American and Jewish middle-class prescriptions for womanly behavior. These gender expectations included limitations on a woman artist’s expression. In “Echoes” (probably written in 1880) Lazarus spoke self-consciously about women as poets, describing the boundaries drawn around a woman poet who cannot share with men the common literary subjects of the “dangers, wounds, and triumphs” of war and must therefore transform her own “elf music” and “echoes” into song.

Successful at that act of transformation, Lazarus found some space in the American literary world. More than any other American Jewish woman of the nineteenth century, Lazarus identified herself and was recognized by readers and critics as an American writer. She was also an increasingly outspoken Jew. Lazarus’s writing benefited from the complexities of her identity. She would not have been as effective on behalf of Jews if she had not believed deeply in America’s freedoms, and she could not have been as passionate a writer if she had not uncovered her own meaningful response to Judaism. SELECTED WORKS BY EMMA LAZARUS Admetus and Other Poems (1871); Alide: An Episode of Goethe’s Life (1874); Emma Lazarus: Selections from Her Poetry and Prose. Edited by Morris Schappes (1944); Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine (1881); Poems and Translations: Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen (1866); The Poems of Emma Lazarus. 2 vols.

(1888); Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems (1882); The Spagnoletto (1876). Bibliography Blain, Virginia, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present (1990); DAB; EJ; JE; Kessner, Carole. “The Emma Lazarus–Henry James Connection: Eight Letters.” American Literary History 3 (1991): 46–62; Lazarus, Josephine. “Emma Lazarus.” In The Poems of Emma Lazarus. 2 vols. (1888). Also in the Century 36 (1888): 875–884; Lichtenstein, Diane. Writing Their Nations: The Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Jewish Women Writers (1992); Merriam, Eve. Emma Lazarus: Woman with a Torch (1956); NAW; Obituary.

NYTimes, November 20, 1887, 16:2; PAJHS 37: 17–29; 38: 261–287; 45: 248–257; Rusk, Ralph, ed. Letters to Emma Lazarus in the Columbia University Library (1939); Schappes, Morris, ed. The Letters of Emma Lazarus, 1868–85 (1949); Schoen, Carol. “Emma Lazarus.” In American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. Vol. 2 (1980); UJE; Vogel, Dan. Emma Lazarus (1980); Young, Bette Roth. Emma Lazarus in the World: Life and Letters (1995). Happy birthday, Emma Lazarus: 'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses' | AL.com "Give me your tired, your poor... "Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Most Americans know these lines, inscribed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, but fewer know the story of the young woman who wrote the famed sonnet and how it ended up on our country's most famous landmark. Read on for more Emma Lazarus, born 167 years ago today, and her most famous work, "The New Colossus." Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887 Lazarus was born in New York on July 22, 1849 and died in 1887 at age 38, most likely of Hodgkins lymphoma. She is considered among the first successful Jewish American authors and often corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom she considered a mentor, and other literary figures of the time. (Wikimedia Commons) Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus, 1883 More than huddled masses There's more than just the huddled masses part. The sonnet describes the Statue of Liberty as a "mighty woman," and "Mother of Exiles," whose torch "glows world-wide welcome." This photos shows Lazarus' hand-written draft, with the full transcript below. It started as a fund raiser France gave the Statue of Liberty to the U.S., but we had to build our own place to put it. Lazarus wrote the poem in 1883 for a book that was circulated to help raise the money to build the pedestal on which the statue now sits.

The poem was also printed in The New York Times and other publications at the time, but failed to create much of an immediate stir beyond that. But faded out of memory for a time When the Statue of Liberty opened in 1886, the poem was nowhere to be found, nor was it read at the unveiling ceremony. The bronze plaque with the poem wasn't installed until 1903 after friends of Lazarus, looking to memorialize her contribution to the statue, raised money for the bronze plaque. Lazarus had died in 1887. It eventually came to define the Statue The Statue of Liberty wasn't designed as a beacon for immigrants. It was just a nice statue. But Lazarus's poem perfectly captured what America represented to the thousands of migrants as they saw Lady Liberty emerge from the shoreline on their way to Ellis Island.

Author Paul Auster wrote that "'The New Colossus' reinvented the statue's purpose, turning Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world." Personal experience shaped the poem Though Lazarus was born to an affluent New York family, she felt a strong connection to Russian Jewish immigrants, many of whom lived in terrible conditions after fleeing to New York. She spent lots of time with the refugees and wrote books and articles about their plight. When the the new statue was being planned, Lazarus was able to see it through their eyes. There's a slight error on the Statue The bronze engraved plaque at the Statue omits a comma from the original poem. The line on the plaque that reads "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" should actually read "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" The error may seem small, but actually changes the meaning of the sentence. What's the old Colossus? If there's a new Colossus, there has to be an old one, right?

In this case, the "brazen giant of Greek fame" is the Colossus of Rhodes, an ancient Greek statue made of iron and bronze that was said to be more then 98 feet tall, guarding the harbor of Rhodes. Historians don't actually know what it looked like, but it was counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This is an artist's depiction of the Colossus from the 1880s. (Wikimedia Commons) New twist on old Colossus The original Colossus was built after a military victory to honor the god Helios and to demonstrate the Rhodesian dominion over the land and sea. It stood for 52 years before toppling during an earthquake. The New Colossus, facing outward to welcome rather than intimidate, has been standing more than twice as long. (Wikimedia Commons) So happy birthday, Emma You set out to help raise money to build a pedestal for a statue and ended up redefining one of the most-recognized landmarks in the world and further establishing the United States as the land of opportunity for all.

Quote by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled ma...” “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Emma Lazarus | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," proclaims the "Mother of Exiles" in Emma Lazarus's sonnet "The New Colossus." Her best-known contribution to mainstream American literature and culture, the poem has contributed to the belief that America means opportunity and freedom for Jews, as well as for other "huddled masses." Through this celebration of the "other," Lazarus conveyed her deepest loyalty to the best of both America and Judaism. Born on July 22, 1849, Lazarus was the fourth of Esther (Nathan) and Moses Lazarus's seven children. She grew up in New York and Newport, Rhode Island, and was educated by private tutors with whom she studied mythology, music, American poetry, European literature, German, French, and Italian.

Her father, who was a successful sugar merchant, supported her writing financially as well as emotionally. In 1866, when Emma was only seventeen, Moses had Poems and Translations: Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen printed "for private circulation." Daughter Emma dedicated the volume "To My Father." Soon after Poems and Translations was published, Lazarus met Ralph Waldo Emerson. The two corresponded until Emerson's death in 1882. During the early years of their relationship, Lazar-us turned to Emerson as her mentor, and he in turn praised and encouraged her writing. In 1871, when she published Admetus and Other Poems, she dedicated the title poem "To My Friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson." Despite his support, Emerson failed to include any of Lazarus's poetry in his 1874 anthology, Parnassus, but he did include authors such as Harriet Prescott Spofford and Julia C.R. Dorr. Lazarus responded with an uncharacteristically angry letter and subsequently modified her idealized image of Emerson. However, student and mentor obviously reconciled; in 1876, Lazarus visited the Emersons in Concord, Massachusetts.

Admetus and Other Poems includes "In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport" and "How Long" as well as translations from the Italian and German (Goethe and Heine). "In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport" echoes in form and meter Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport." Yet where Longfellow's meditation closes with "the dead nations never rise again," Lazarus's reverie concludes by announcing that "the sacred shrine is holy yet." "In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport" is one of Lazarus's earliest creative expressions of a Jewish consciousness. "How Long" is significant because its proclamation of the need for a "yet unheard of strain," one suitable to prairies, plains, wilderness, and snow-peaked mountains places Lazarus among those mid-nineteenth century American writers who wanted to create literature that did not depend on British outlines. Lazarus published her next book, Alide: An Episode of Goethe's Life, in 18 74. Her only novel, Alide is based on Goethe's own autobiographical writings and focuses on a love affair between the young Goethe and a country woman.

The lovers part at the end, because the poet must be free to fulfill his "sacred office." Lazar-us's only other piece of fiction, a story titled "The Eleventh Hour," was published in 1878 in Scribner's. The story raises questions about the needs and rights of the artist, like Alide, and about the status of American art, like "How Long." In 1876, Lazar-us privately published The Spagnoletto, a tragic verse drama. Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Lazarus's poems appeared in American magazines. Among these are "Outside the Church" (1872) in Index; "Phantasmagoria" (1876) and "The Christmas Tree" (1877) in Lippincott's; "The Taming of the Falcon" (1879) in the Century; and "Progress and Poverty" (18 8 1) in the New York Times. Lazarus's most productive period was the early 1880s.

In addition to numerous magazine poems, essays, and letters, she published a highly respected volume of translations, Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, in 1881, and Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems, in 1882. This was also the period in which Lazarus most obviously spoke out as self-identified Jew and American writer simultaneously. Until this period, Lazarus's "interest and sympathies were loyal to [her] race," but, as she explained in 1877, "my religious convictions ... and the circumstances of my life have led me somewhat apart from my people." Although her family did belong to the Sephardic Shearith Israel synagogue in New York, and she did write "In the Jewish Synagogue in Newport" when she was young, it appears that learning of the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s kindled Lazarus's commitment to Judaism. This change in attitude is evident in her writing, as well as in her work with the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society-meeting Eastern European immigrants on Wards Island-and in her efforts to help establish the Hebrew Technical Institute and agricultural communities for Eastern European Jews in the United States.

Songs of a Semite was published by the American Hebrew. The title, as well as many of the poems in the collection, publicly proclaimed Lazarus's identity as a Jewish poet. In that role, Lazarus battled against both anti-Semitic non-Jews and complacent Jews. In "The Banner of the Jew," she urged "Israel" to "Recall today / The glorious Maccabean rage," and she reminded readers that "With Moses's law and David's lyre" Israel's "ancient strength remains unbent." And in The Dance to Death, a poetic dramatization of Richard Reinhard's 1877 prose narrative Der Tanz zum Tode, Lazarus celebrated the courage and faith of the Jews who were condemned to die in Nordhausen, Germany, in 1349 for allegedly causing the plague. The Dance to Death was dedicated to George Eliot, "who did most among the artists of our day towards elevating and ennobling the spirit of Jewish nationality" with her novel Daniel Deronda. Lazarus published Songs of a Semite in the same year that she adopted a more public Jewish identity in the realm of American magazines, particularly in the Century.

Three essays published in that magazine over a ten-month period attest to Lazar-us's concerns. In the first, "Was the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?" (April 1882), Lazarus offered an ambivalent portrait of Benjamin Disraeli; she defined "representative" as embodying the best as well as the worst of Jewish traits. In the second essay, "Russian Christianity vs. Modem Judaism" (May 1882), Lazarus included a personal plea for informed understanding of Russian Jews and their situation. And in the third essay, "The Jewish Problem" (February 1883), she observed that Jews, who are always in the minority, "seem fated to excite the antagonism of their fellow countrymen." To this problem she offered a solution: the founding of a state by Jews for Jews in Palestine. Lazarus promoted Zionism throughout the 1880s. Although Lazarus had published occasionally in the Jewish press, she became a regular contributor to the American Hebrew in the early 1880s.

This weekly, edited by Philip Cowan, printed "Judaism the Connecting Link Between Science and Religion" and "The Schiff Refuge" in 1882, "An Epistle to the Hebrews" in 1882-1883, "Cruel Bigotry" in 1883, and "The Last National Revolt of the Jews" as well as "M. Renan and the Jews"-an essay, which won first prize in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Young Men's Hebrew Association-in 1884. In "An Epistle to the Hebrews," a series of fifteen open letters that appeared between November 1882 and February 1883, Lazarus suggested that assimilated American Jews should recognize their privileged status as well as their vulnerability in America, that all Jews should understand their history in order not to be misled by anti-Semitic generalizations, and that Eastern European Jews should emigrate to Palestine. At the same time that Lazarus was writing more self-consciously as a Jew, she was also writing as an American.

Her 1881 essay "American Literature" (Critic) defended American literature against the charge that America had no literary tradition and that America's poets had left no mark. "American Literature" was followed by "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow" (American Hebrew) and the eulogy "Emerson's Personality," both published in 1882. The latter appeared in the Century, three months after "Was the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?" and two months after "Russian Christianity vs. Modern Judaism." Lazarus also published the poem "To R.W.E." in 1884 (Critic). Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus" in 1883 "for the occasion" of an auction to raise money for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. The poem was singled out and printed in the Catalogue of the Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition at the National Academy of Design because event organizers hoped it would "awaken to new enthusiasm" those working on behalf of the pedestal. In the following year, Lazarus published the essay "The Poet Heine" in the Century.

Lazarus explained her fascination with Heine, born a Jew and later baptized and educated as a Catholic: "A fatal and irreconcilable dualism formed the basis of Heine's nature.... He was a Jew, with the mind and eyes of a Greek." Lazarus admired Heine's ability to understand the "internal incongruity" of his mind as well as his Jewish "pathos" and worldly sensibility. Lazarus traveled to Europe twice, the first time in 1883. During her stay in England and France, she met Robert Browning, William Morris, and Jewish leaders. Her essay "A Day in Surrey with William Morris" (the Century, 1886) paints a positive portrait of the English socialist. Noting that Morris's "extreme socialistic convictions" elicited criticism, Lazarus explained that English inequalities were more "glaring" than American ones and therefore more in need of dramatic reform. Lazarus's second trip to Europe was a longer one, lasting from May 1885 until September 1887.

According to her sister Josephine Lazarus's biographical sketch, Emma "decided to go abroad again as the best means of regaining composure and strength" after Moses Lazarus died in March 1885. This journey included visits to England, France, Holland, and Italy. Lazarus returned to New York very ill, probably with cancer. She died two months later, on November 19, 1887. Two of Lazarus's sisters, Mary and Annie, published The Poems of Emma Lazarus, I and II posthumously, in 1888. Volume I contains the biographical sketch written by sister Josephine. In the same year, the sketch also appeared in the Century. Volume 11 includes her final work, "By the Waters in Babylon, Little Poems in Prose," which had previously appeared in the Century in March 1887. This set of Prose poems suggests that Lazarus was exploring new directions for her art. Volume 11 also contains translations of "Hebrew poets of mediaeval Spain," Solomon Ben Judah Gabirol, Abul Hassan Judah Ben Ha-Levi, and Moses Ben Esra.

Lazar-us's work received consistently positive reviews. By the late 1870s and 1880s, American writers and readers knew Lazar-us as a frequent contributor to periodicals such as Lippincott's, the Century, and the American Hebrew. She corresponded with writers and thinkers of the time, including Ivan Turgenev, William James, Robert Browning, and James Russell Lowell. When she died, the American Hebrew published the "Emma Lazarus Memorial Number." In it, John Hay, John Jay Whittier, and Cyrus Sulzberger, among others, praised Lazarus for her contributions to American literature as well as to "her own race and kindred." Lazar-us dedicated her life to her work. Yet she still had to contend with American and Jewish middle-class prescriptions for womanly behavior. These gender expectations included limitations on a woman artist's expression.

In "Echoes" (probably written in 1880) Lazarus spoke self-consciously about women as poets, describing the boundaries drawn around a woman poet who cannot share with men the common literary subjects of the "dangers, wounds, and triumphs" of war and must therefore transform her own "elf music" and "echoes" into song. Successful at that act of transformation, Lazarus found some space in the American literary world. More than any other Jewish woman of the nineteenth century, Lazarus identified herself and was recognized by readers and critics as an American writer. She was also an increasingly outspoken Jew, and she was a woman. Lazarus's writing benefited from the complexities of her identity. She would not have been as effective on behalf of Jews if she had not believed deeply in America's freedoms, and she could not have been as passionate a writer if she had not uncovered her own meaningful response to Judaism. SELECTED WORKS BY EMMA LAZARUS Admetus and Other Poems (1871); Alide: An Episode of Goethe's Life (1874); Emma Lazarus. Selections from Her Poetry and Prose.

Edited by Morris Schappes (1944); Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine (188 1); Poems and Translations. Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen (1866); The Poems of Emma Lazarus. 2 vols. (188 8); Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems (1882); The Spagnoletto (1876). Sources: Paula Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore eds. Jewish Women in America. NY: Routledge, 1997. Reprinted with permission of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) . Portrait (1887) depicting the poet in the last year of her short life, was engraved by T. Johnson from a photograph by W. Kurtz. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. What is the quote on the statue of liberty? · How Tall is the Statue of Liberty? History of the Statue of Liberty What is the quote on the statue of liberty?

There are several phrases associated with the Statue of Liberty, but the most recognizable is “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This quote comes from Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, New Colossus, which she wrote for a fundraiser auction to raise money for the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty now sits. The poem did not receive much recognition and was quite forgotten after the auction. In the early 1900s and after Lazarus’ death, one of her friends began a campaign to memorialize Lazarus and her New Colossus sonnet. The effort was a success, and a plaque with the poem’s text was mounted inside the pedestal of the statute. Statue of Liberty Poem Also known as the Statue of Liberty poem, New Colossus and its famous last lines have become part of American history. Here is the sonnet in its entirety: New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Statue of Liberty Inscription Since Lazarus’ poem was mounted on a plaque, it is not actually inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. The only Statue of Liberty inscription can be found on the tablet in her left hand, which says JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776), the day the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence. © 2009 How Tall Is The Statue Of Liberty - Contact

Question: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ is from which sonnet by Emma Lazarus?
Answer: The New Colossus