''The New Colossus'' by Emma Lazarus

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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At the base of the Statue of Liberty is a plaque with a poem about welcoming immigrants to America. (Did you guess right?)

How the poem and the statue came to be linked is an interesting story.

By reading various sources and watching several videos, you'll find out the following.

• why Lazarus wrote the poem
• what inspired her
• what the poem is all about
• what the Statue and the poem has meant to Americans

Read the following article. Take notes while you read. Write down the main ideas and details and think about how this article clarifies the topic for you.

How a Poem Influenced the Meaning of the Statue of Liberty

Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, crafted the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of freedom spreading from the light of Lady Liberty's torch across the ocean to every country around the world. At its dedication in 1886, the idea of the statue as a symbol of immigration was far from everyone's mind.

That idea came much later, when a woman named Emma Lazarus wrote a poem about it.

Emma Lazarus and Her Poem

The daughter of wealthy Jewish parents, Emma Lazarus grew up in New York. As an adult, she became interested in the sufferings of Jews who were being persecuted in Russia. She visited poor Jewish immigrants newly arrived in the city and tried to help them to a fresh start in their new country.

In the early 1800s, organizations were raising money to build a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The fundraising efforts were not going well and it was feared that New York would lose the chance to have the statue.

Emma Lazarus was asked to participate in an art show to raise money for the pedestal fund by contributing a poem. At first, she was not interested in the project. Most poets find their inspiration randomly and do not like writing "on assignment."

A friend of Lazarus, who was also a writer, convinced her by saying, "Think of that goddess standing on her pedestal down yonder in the bay, and holding her torch out to those Russian refugees of yours that you are so fond of visiting at Ward's Island."

Lazarus changed her mind and soon poured her heart into the poem "The New Colossus." The title refers to the Colossus of Rhodes, an ancient Greek statue.

Lazarus imagines the Colossus as a precursor to the statue that stands in New York harbor. She sees Lady Liberty as a "mighty woman with a torch and the Mother of Exiles."

She wrote the following lines, which have come to be almost as famous as the statue itself.

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-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

However, the poem did not immediately become associated with the Statue of Liberty. The art auction did not do well, and the poem was forgotten for years. Sadly, Lazarus died less than four years later.

In 1903, 17 years after the installation of the statue, a friend of Lazarus succeeded in having "The New Colossus" installed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

Since then, millions of immigrants have used the guiding light of "Lady Liberty" to find their way to the "golden door" of freedom.

• Did you take notes on the main ideas and details of the article? (If not, do that now!)

Time to move on to the Got It? section, where you'll watch some videos on the same topic and gather some more information!