Words of Freedom

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (1883)

Emma Lazarus wrote this poem to help raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and it is inscribed on a tablet affixed to the pedestal. The Statue, a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France, cost $400,000; $270,000 had to be raised in the U.S. to pay for the pedestal. The Statue was dedicated in 1886. Lazarus died the next year at the age of 38.

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!"

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