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AUTHOR'S NOTE

EMMA LAZARUS WAS A WRITER AT HEART. Born in 1849 into a wealthy Jewish family in New York City, she wrote many poems, stories, and articles during her short life and was already a highly respected writer at thirty-eight years old when she died of Hodgkin's disease.

Emma was also a fervent humanitarian. Dr. Gottheil of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society brought her to Ward's Island because she was already expressing concern for the immigrants. Witnessing their terrible poverty, Emma became fiercely determined to help. She worked in the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society and also raised money for it, strongly believing that if immigrants received job training and education they would contribute to society.

Emma Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus," the poem about the Statue of Liberty, in 1883 when she was thirty-four years old. Thanks to Emma's friend Georgina Schuyler, the poem was engraved on a bronze plaque and placed inside an entryway to the statue's pedestal—thus saving it for posterity.

The bold words that Emma gave the statue to speak are the most famous of all her poetry—and are permanently linked with the statue and known throughout the world. Now on display in the Statue of Liberty Museum, the poem is viewed by millions of visitors each year and continues to stir the hearts of people in the United States and give hope to all those around the world who "yearn to breathe free."

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!"

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