The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The last six lines of the poem are the most famous, and in these lines, the Statute of Liberty is talking “with silent lips.” She says, Many people believe the twin cities the statute is commanding are New York City and Brooklyn, but others believe the cities could be New York City and Jersey City, New York’s neighbor across the river. She extends this thought into the next line, stating that the hand holding the torch “glows world-wide welcome.” In other words, her torch is lighting the way for all to see.Īt the end of line seven, Lazarus writes, “…her mild eyes command/The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.” There has been much discussion behind this. In lines five and six, Lazarus creates a new name for the Statue of Liberty: “…and her name/Mother of Exiles.” Since an exile is someone who is forced to leave their homeland, Lazarus is explaining that Lady Liberty will not only welcome those exiles, but she will also be mother-like to them, comforting and supporting them like every good mother does. In addition, Lazarus personifies the statue, giving her the ability to “welcome” and “command.” She says that unlike the giant statute the Greeks made, America’s statue will be of “A mighty woman with a torch,/ whose flame is the imprisoned lightning…” Also in these lines, she stresses that the Statue of Liberty will be welcoming, whereas the Colossus was meant to intimidate those who reached Greece’s shores. The last six lines, called a sestet, have a rhyme scheme of cdcdcd.Īs stated earlier, the speaker of the poem, presumably Lazarus, compares the Statue of Liberty to the Colossus.
The poem is fourteen lines long, and the first eight lines, called an octave, have the rhyme scheme abbaabba. Next, Lazarus’ The New Colossus is an example of a Petrarchan sonnet. She writes, “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,/With conquering limbs astride from land to land…” Lazarus makes mention of the ancient statue in the first and second lines of the poem. The title also claims that the Statue of Liberty is a replacement of sorts for the old Greek statue the poet does this by including the word “new” in the title. One cannot analyze this poem without first looking at its title, which refers to the statue of the Greek god Helios that once stood at the harbor in Rhodes, Greece, over two thousand years ago.
Lady Liberty will not turn anyone away: she will accept the tired and poor and anyone else who needs to be free. She holds her torch in order to light the way of all of those who are seeking shelter in a new land. In the poem, Lazarus depicts the Statue of Liberty as a woman who is welcoming all of those who need a home, and she names her the Mother of Exiles. In short form, this is a poem that was inspired by the Statue of Liberty.
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