Your Teeming Shore
Publisher Desc.
"The New Colossus" is a sonnet written by American poet Emma
Lazarus in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the
Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and
mounted inside the pedestal's lower level. '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 (an American journalist and historian) wrote:
"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
Lazarus's poem that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty, the role of
unofficial greeter of incoming immigrantsi.
In the current political climate, Lazarus's words remain relevant and
poignant.
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