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The New Colossus Essay

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The New Colossus changed Americans view of the Statue of Liberty forever. Lady Liberty was a gift from France to celebrate the friendship the two countries endured during the Revolutionary War. It was not supposed to be a symbol of immigrating, but became one due to the poem, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, written in 1887. The New Colossus welcomes immigrants to the U.S.A. on the base of the State of Liberty. The poem references the statue and connects it to the immigrants in America. The New Colossus has numerous of lines hinting to the theme of immigration. “‘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’” (Lazarus 10-13). “Give me your tired, your poor”, meaning the people struggling in their country and looking for a new start in America. “Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” refering to the countries with horrible leaders and the people who are living there, in fear. Lazarus encourages those people to immigrate to the United States. “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” means the people who are unhappy living in their current country and looking for a new one to live in. Lazarus's poem is stating …show more content…

“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: he mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.” (Lazarus 4-8) This quote from The New Colossus is referring to the Statue of Liberty with the torch in her hands and “her beacon-hand:. The twin cities are New York City and Jersey City, New York City’s neighbor.”Finally in 1903, after relentless lobbying by friend of Lazarus …. it was ‘affixed to the pedestal as an ex post facto inscription’”(Roberts 34-38). The poem was connected to the Statue of Liberty and was engraved on the base in

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