"New Colossus"
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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

"New Colossus," is penned by Jewish poet Emma Lazarus in 1883. Lazarus wrote and donated the sonnet to a fundraiser for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, which would be dedicated along with the statue itself three years later, in 1886. "New Colossus" is now inscribed on a bronze plaque at the base of that same pedestal.