"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

 

Glenn Beck read this to inform Barack Obama how it should be read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSeVRtWmhTk and if that don't scare you, nothing will. I am not as sure about anything I think or say as he is about everything he thinks and says. This poem was written in 1883 and installed on a bronze plaque in the Statue of Liberty in 1903. This made the Statue of Liberty into a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving in the New World. The Statue was given to the US by France as a symbol of something quite different. Here's the history of Liberty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty And here's the Colossus of Rhodes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes 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!"