Trivia: Both Irving Berlin and Gordon Jenkins have set these lines to music, but as is usually the case when the lyrics come first and are not subject to alteration, the tunes are hackneyed.
Let’s stick with the poem, which is tremendous:
The New Colossus
(A poem by Emma Lazarus, graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands)
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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