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The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
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!”
____________________________
This famous sonnet about the American “Statue of Liberty” is (as sonnets are) 14 lines, with a meter in iambic pentameter, and a rhyme scheme of ABBA, ABBA, CDCDCD. Lazarus was asked to write something about the statue, which she did in 1883, and her sonnet was eventually engraved upon a plague at the base of it in 1903.
In the poem, the statue is described as the “Mother of Exiles” and America as a safe haven for the world’s homeless and refugees, longing for a place to “breathe free.”
The poem begins with a comparison. For the poet, the ancient Greek Colossus – the Old Colossus – was a symbol of power and conquest. The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The Colossus of Rhodes (Ancient Greek: ὁ Κολοσσὸς Ῥόδιος, romanized: ho Kolossòs Rhódios; Greek: Κολοσσός της Ρόδου, romanized: Kolossós tes Rhódou) was a statue of the Greek Titan god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was constructed to celebrate the successful defence of Rhodes city against an attack by Demetrius I of Macedon, who had besieged it for a year with a large army and navy.
According to most contemporary descriptions, the Colossus stood approximately 70 cubits, or 33 metres (108 feet) high – approximately the height of the modern Statue of Liberty from feet to crown – making it the tallest statue in the ancient world. It collapsed during the earthquake of 226 BC, although parts of it were preserved. In accordance with a certain oracle, the Rhodians did not rebuild it. John Malalas wrote that Hadrian in his reign re-erected the Colossus, but he was mistaken. According to the Suda, the Rhodians were called Colossaeans (Κολοσσαεῖς), because they erected the statue on the island.
In 653, an Arab force under Muslim general Mu’awiya I conquered Rhodes, and according to the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, the statue was completely destroyed and the remains sold; this account may be unreliable.(pp 179–186)
Since 2008, a series of as-yet-unrealized proposals to build a new Colossus at Rhodes Harbour have been announced, although the actual location of the original monument remains in dispute.
This New Colossus, according to the Speaker, will stand for something different than the original. This one will be a woman, a Mother, and rather than represent power or might, she will represent freedom, welcome, and safety.
There is some confusion over the poet’s use of “twin cities.” The two primary beliefs about her meaning here is that she either meant New York City and Brooklyn, or that she meant New York City and Jersey City. Either way, the Statue of Liberty today is synonymous with New York City.
The turn / volta of this poem, reflected by the change in Line 9, is that the last six lines are from the perspective of the statue herself. These lines are among the most famous in all of American poetry.
“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!”
In these lines, the statue is making a global call of invitation to all people who are in search of freedom.
The poem has become a source of some controversy in the 21st century, as U.S. policy regarding immigration is hotly contested. Lawmakers who are proponents of mass immigration often cite the poem as a source of inspiration, and mandate, while opponents to liberal mass immigration laws point out that an engraving on the Statue of Liberty is not one and the same as a signed piece of legislation. Perhaps we will eventually see mass immigration opponents citing the poem’s qualifiers (“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” and “yearning to be free”) as a way to at least be selective in which “huddled masses” are allowed entry.
It seems prudent to me that the country continue to value freedom, lest the statue’s promises become impossible. Perhaps that objective is protected in part through immigration policy, but it is much better protected by the values given to native citizens through civics education.
These are the debates of our times. One doubts that Lazarus could imagine how her poem might play a role in those debates almost 150 years later.