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!"

Emma Lazarus' 1883 poem, "The New Colossus," affirms that the Statue of Liberty is indeed a "Mother of Exiles"; that underdogs and misfits are the spirit of the country.

Did you know the statue's official name is "Liberty Enlightening the World"? She doesn't just greet arrivals into New York Harbor - she is in mid-step, leading the way toward the oceans.