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EMMA LAZARUS
Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) was born in New York City as the fourth of seven children in a well-established family. Her parents provided her with a private education, and her father supported her writing: When Lazarus was just seventeen, her father had a collection of Lazarus’s poetry, called Poems and Translations: Written between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen, printed for private circulation. In addition to poetry, Lazarus wrote essays, plays, several highly respected translations, and a novel, going on to become part of the literary elite in late-nineteenth-century New York. Lazarus is probably known best for the poem that follows, “The New Colossus.” She wrote this sonnet in 1883 as a donation to an auction held to raise money to build the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The poem was installed on the base of the statue in 1903, nearly two decades after Lazarus’s death in 1887.
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
5 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
10 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!”
In the opening line of the poem, Lazarus alludes to the Colossus of Rhodes — a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios that was erected in the city of Rhodes in 280 B.C. The Colossus was 98 feet tall, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world. Compare the language that Lazarus uses to describe this “brazen giant of Greek fame” (l. 1) to the language she uses to describe the Statue of Liberty, the “Mother of Exiles” (l. 6). If both statues are symbols for nations, then what kind of argument does Lazarus make by describing the two statues as she does?
Lazarus refers to the Statue of Liberty as the “Mother of Exiles.” Do you think this description still holds up today in light of current debates about immigration laws? Write a brief essay of about 500 words using both historical evidence and current events to support your argument.
Note the description of the Statue of Liberty’s eyes as “mild” in line 7. Do you think this is an accurate depiction of how “the homeless, tempest-tost” are generally seen in the United States today? Why, or why not?