The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
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!"
OK, so technically this poem was not written for the Brooklyn Bridge. It was written for the
Statue of Liberty
in 1883 by Emma Lazarus to help
fundraising
for the Pedestal.
The connection with the bridge occurs in the line "The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame ..." The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, just as fund raising for the Pedestal was being heavily promoted by the New York World and Joseph Pulitzer. Emma wrote the poem just as the bridge was opening, it was the other wonder in New York harbor at the time. "Bridging the harbor", whether by Brooklyn's bridge or Liberty's command of the air, was a prominent concept in New York of 1883. The twin cities refer to New York and Brooklyn which were separate cities at the time, not consolidated until 1898.
Thanks to Brooklynite Rich Marino for his discriminating insight.
This bronze plaque was presented by philanthropist Georgiana Schuyler in 1903, twenty years after Emma Lazarus wrote her sonnet. Originally displayed on the interior wall of the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, it was placed in the Liberty exhibit in the base of the monument in July, 1886.
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