INTRODUCTION
When Emma Lazarus was asked to write a poem to help raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the original intent of this massive civic symbol was to celebrate the triumph of liberty in the American Civil War. Lazarus, a Sephardic Jew, who worked with immigrants streaming through New York’s Ellis Island and who opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, subverted that purpose with merely 14 lines of text. Thus her words turned one of the nation’s most recognized monuments, in the harbor of our largest city, into a symbol of worldwide welcome.
Themes: Belonging, Citizen Power, Narrative Formation, Exceptionalism
FULL TEXT
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!”