The New Colossus


"The New Colossus" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus. She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level.

History of the poem

This poem was written as a donation to an auction of art and literary works conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise money for the pedestal's construction. Lazarus's contribution was solicited by fundraiser William Maxwell Evarts. Initially she refused but writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor.
"The New Colossus" was the first entry read at the exhibit's opening on November 2, 1883. It remained associated with the exhibit through a published catalog until the exhibit closed after the pedestal was fully funded in August 1885, but was forgotten and played no role at the opening of the statue in 1886. It was, however, published in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as well as The New York Times during this time period. In 1901, Lazarus's friend Georgina Schuyler began an effort to memorialize Lazarus and her poem, which succeeded in 1903 when a plaque bearing the text of the poem was put on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
On the plaque hanging inside the Statue of Liberty, the line "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" is missing a comma, and reads in Lazarus's manuscript "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" since its unveiling in 1903. The plaque also describes itself as an engraving; it is actually a casting.
The original manuscript is held by the American Jewish Historical Society.

Text of the poem

Interpretation

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet.
The title of the poem and the first two lines reference the Greek Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a famously gigantic sculpture that stood beside or straddled across the entrance to the harbor of the island of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC. In the poem, Lazarus contrasts that ancient symbol of grandeur and empire with a "New" Colossus – the Statue of Liberty, a female embodiment of commanding "maternal strength".
, the East River and the Statue of Liberty
The "sea-washed, sunset gates" are the mouths of the Hudson and East Rivers, to the west of Brooklyn. The "imprisoned lightning" refers to the electric light in the torch, then a novelty.
The "air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame" refers to New York Harbor between New York City and Brooklyn, which were separate cities at the time the poem was written, before being consolidated as boroughs of the City of Greater New York in 1898.
The "huddled masses" refers to the large numbers of immigrants arriving in the United States in the 1880s, particularly through the port of New York via Ellis Island. Lazarus was an activist and advocate for Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Czarist Russia.

Influence

Immigration to the United States

wrote that "Bartholdi's gigantic effigy was originally intended as a monument to the principles of international republicanism, but '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."
John T. Cunningham wrote that "The Statue of Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under the torch and the shining face, heading toward Ellis Island. However, it was that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants."
The poem has entered the political realm. It was quoted in John F. Kennedy's book A Nation of Immigrants as well as a 2010 political speech by President Obama advocating immigration policy reform. On August 2, 2017, the poem and its importance to the Statue of Liberty's symbolism, and thus the effect on American immigration policy, was debated in a White House briefing.
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On August 12, 2019, Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, revised a line from the poem to outline a new immigration policy that would evaluate potential visa/green card immigrants on the basis of income and education, stating: "Give me your tired, your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge."
Ron Charles in the Washington Post was among many who criticized Cuccinelli's interpretation of the poem, stating:

In culture

Parts of the poem also appear in popular culture. The Broadway musical Miss Liberty, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, an immigrant himself, used the final stanza beginning "Give me your tired, your poor" as the basis for a song. Joan Baez used the second half of the poem in her lyrics to The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti Part 1 which forms parts of Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to the 1971 Italian film Sacco & Vanzetti, based on the events surrounding the trial and judicial execution of the Italian-born American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
It was also read in the 1941 film Hold Back the Dawn as well as being recited by the heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's wartime film Saboteur.
It is recited by B.J. Blazkowicz at the end of the 2014 video game '. The poem is also the subtitle of the game's sequel: '.
Parts of the poem are recited during the final live telecast of Miss USA 2019, with the poem being recited by some of the contestants.