"The New Colossus" is a
sonnet by American poet
Emma Lazarus
Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet " The New Colossus", which was inspire ...
(1849–1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the
Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'').
In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level.
History
![Statue of Liberty 7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Statue_of_Liberty_7.jpg)
This poem was written as a donation to an auction of art and literary works
[; Mark Twain also contributed.] 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
William Maxwell Evarts (February 6, 1818February 28, 1901) was an American lawyer and statesman from New York who served as U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York. He was renowned for his skills as a lit ...
. Initially, she refused but writer
Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor. Lazarus was involved in aiding Jewish refugees to New York who had fled
antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe, and she saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue.
"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
Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...
's ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
'' as well as ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' 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 the comma.
The plaque also describes itself as an
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
; it is actually a
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
.
The original manuscript is held by the
American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...
.
Text
Interpretation
![Colossus of Rhodes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Colossus_of_Rhodes.jpg)
The poem is a
Petrarchan sonnet
The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Develop ...
.
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
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, a famously gigantic sculpture that stood beside or straddled the entrance to the harbor of the island of
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
in the 3rd century BC. In the poem, Lazarus contrasts that ancient symbol of grandeur and empire ("the brazen giant of Greek fame") with a "New" Colossus – the Statue of Liberty, a female embodiment of commanding "maternal strength" ("Mother of Exiles").
The "sea-washed, sunset gates" are the mouths of the
Hudson and
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...
s, 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
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, which were separate cities at the time the poem was written, before being consolidated as boroughs of the
City of Greater New York
The City of Greater New York was the term used by many politicians and scholars for the expanded City of New York created on January 1, 1898, by consolidating the existing City of New York with Brooklyn, western Queens County, and Staten Is ...
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. Lazarus was an activist and advocate for Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in
Imperial Russia.
Influence
![HIghsmith 2017 LOC Statue of Liberty NY Harbor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/HIghsmith_2017_LOC_Statue_of_Liberty_NY_Harbor.jpg)
Immigration to the United States
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), '' The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The ...
wrote that "Bartholdi's gigantic effigy was originally intended as a monument to the principles of international
republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
, 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
azarus's poemthat permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants."
The poem was quoted in
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
's book ''
A Nation of Immigrants
''A Nation of Immigrants'' () is a 1958 book on American immigration by then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The name of the book is a reference to the fact that the United States is a country whose population is predominantly ma ...
'' (1958).
In 2019, during the
Trump administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...
,
Ken Cuccinelli
Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli II ( ; born July 30, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, h ...
, whom Trump appointed as acting director of
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...
, revised a line from the poem in support of the administration's "
public charge rule
Under the public charge rule, immigrants to United States classified as Likely or Liable to become a Public Charge may be denied visas or permission to enter the country due to their disabilities or lack of economic resources. The term was in ...
" to reject applicants for visas or green cards on the basis of income and education. Cuccinelli added the caveat "Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge"; later suggested that the "huddled masses" were European; and downplayed the poem as it was "not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty." Cuccinelli's remark prompted criticism. The Trump administration rule was later blocked by a federal appeals court.
In popular culture
Parts of the poem also appear in popular culture. The Broadway musical ''
Miss Liberty
''Miss Liberty'' is a 1949 Broadway musical with a book by Robert E. Sherwood and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It is based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'') in 1886. The score includes the song ...
'', with music and lyrics by
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russ ...
, 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
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
The
American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...
in New York City has a "New Colossus Project" of exhibitions, videos, and curriculum related to the poem. It also hosts the "New Colossus Translation Project" (produced by
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Suskin Ostriker (born November 11, 1937) is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.Powell C.S. (1994) ''Profile: Jeremiah and Alicia Ostriker – A Marriage of Science and Art'', Scientific American 271(3), 28-3 ...
, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Tess O'Dwyer); it publishes translations of the poem into other languages by poets from around the world, including
Emma Lazarus
Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet " The New Colossus", which was inspire ...
’ biographer Esther Schor's translation into
Esperanto,
Karen Alkalay-Gut
Karen Alkalay-Gut ( he, קרן אלקלעי-גוט; born 29 March 1945) is a poet, professor, and editor who lives in Israel and writes in English.
Personal life
Born in London on the last night of the Blitz buzz bombs, Alkalay-Gut moved with he ...
's into Hebrew, Ming Di's into Chinese,
Dunya Mikhail's into Arabic, and
Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include ''Empire of Dreams'' (1988), ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and United States of Banana'' (2011).
Braschi writes cross-genr ...
into Spanish.
The poem is frequently recited or referenced in works of fiction, such as literature, film, and video games. Some examples include a version of the poem recited in
Cixin Liu
Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese science fiction writer. He is a nine-time winner of China's Galaxy Award and has also received the 2015 Hugo Award for his novel '' The Three-Body Problem'' as well as the 2017 ...
's ''
The Dark Forest'' (first published in Chinese in 2008 and in English in 2015), the second volume of the science-fiction trilogy ''
Remembrance of Earth's Past
''Remembrance of Earth's Past'' () is a science fiction series by Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The series is also popularly referred to as ''Three-Body'' from part of the title of its first novel, '' The Three-Body Problem'' (). The series details ...
''.
[Page 275 of the Tor Paperback edition, 2015.] The poem was also read in the 1941 film ''
Hold Back the Dawn
''Hold Back the Dawn'' is a 1941 American romantic drama film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havi ...
'' as well as being recited by the heroine in
Alfred Hitchcock's wartime film ''
Saboteur
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...
''.
It is recited by
B.J. Blazkowicz at the end of the 2014 video game ''
Wolfenstein: The New Order''. The poem is also the subtitle of the game's sequel: ''
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus''. In ''
Dimension 20
''Dimension 20'' is a tabletop role-playing game show produced by CollegeHumor, and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master. Most of the games use ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition. Seasons of the show ...
: The Unsleeping City'', a character based on Emma Lazarus and bearing the same name appears in several episodes.
References
External links
*
* . Emma Lazarus' handwritten sonne
"The New Colossus"*
Manuscript notebook from the Emma Lazarus collectionat the American Jewish Historical Society. Includes an undated manuscript version of "The New Colossus".
* Cavitch, Max (2008)
"Emma Lazarus and the Golem of Liberty" In ''The Traffic in Poems: Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Transatlantic Exchange''. Meredith L. McGill (ed.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. app. 97–122.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Colossus, The
1883 poems
American poems
Articles containing video clips
Jewish American literature
Jewish poetry
Sonnets
Statue of Liberty
Works about immigration to the United States
Colossus of Rhodes