Rewriting Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus"
The Brian Lehrer Show | Aug 4, 2017
NPR religion correspondent and the author of A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (Simon & Schuster, 2015) Tom Gjelten is joined by Russian immigrant and poet Gala Mukomolova, and Iranian-American poet, professor, and critic Kaveh Akbar, to talk about rewriting Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus" for the 21st century. Lazarus was a New York poet and descendant of Jewish immigrants, she penned the sonnet in 1883 with the intention to help raise funds for the Statue of Liberty. The poem has been in the news after White House aide Stephen Miller downplayed the importance of Lazarus' poem in an exchange with CNN's Jim Acosta.
The New Colossus
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!
