A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, January 30, 2017

The New Colossus

 The final five lines of Emma Lazarus' 1883 poem "The New Colossus" are engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty:
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!”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Truth isn't a matter of what one says --no matter how fancy the words or nobles the sentiments. It's a matter of what one does.

For years, the USA has claimed to be an honest broker between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

For decades while denying its black citizens full rights, the US portrayed itself as a democratic country seized with the idea of universal human rights.

Back in the 1940s the US inprisioned its citizens of Japanese origin in concentration camps.

So another lie has been exposed as a lie. Big deal.

Michael Collins Dunn said...

I don't deny what you say because it's true. I see these as sentiments we should aspire to transcend the past