The New Colossus By Emma Lazarus, 1883

The New Colossus

By Emma Lazarus, 1883

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!"

    When I read this poem I thought about how I don't even understand how hard it was for people when they first came to the "New World". This poem was actually very deep but it took a couple of tries to try and figure out what it meant. Then it took me a little bit longer to figure out what it meant to me. I realized that my way of life didn't just happen it took many years and generations to get to the world we live in today.

    It's going to keep changing too. The line in the poem that really stuck out to me was, "Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles." This line stuck with me because Emma reffered to The Statue of Liberty to be called "Mother of Exiles". To me that means she is the mother of immagrants.