Today is Flag Day. I have my Stars’n’Stripes , my Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread on Me), and my Peace Flag out. (I let my freak flag fly daily! hehe)
Thoughts of immigrant grandparents create a mental picture of their initial view of The Statue of Liberty upon arrival in our country. What must they have been feeling?
My thinking turns with a certain bitter irony, to the words inscribed upon Lady Liberty from Emma Lazurus’ New Colossus. I searched and found the poem, which I am sharing here today.
The phrase, “Mother of Exiles”, is a loving, beautiful ideal and sadly ironic somehow.
There is a website dedicated to rewriting this poem to reflect current truths; check it out if you wish. The link is below. Feel free to post your own version, if you wish:
http://www.horizonmag.com/pictorial/liberty.htm
No disrespect is intended in this post, to Emma Lazurus, nor Lady Liberty. (To mods: I think this poem is public domain)
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazurus
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!'
Thoughts of immigrant grandparents create a mental picture of their initial view of The Statue of Liberty upon arrival in our country. What must they have been feeling?
My thinking turns with a certain bitter irony, to the words inscribed upon Lady Liberty from Emma Lazurus’ New Colossus. I searched and found the poem, which I am sharing here today.
The phrase, “Mother of Exiles”, is a loving, beautiful ideal and sadly ironic somehow.
There is a website dedicated to rewriting this poem to reflect current truths; check it out if you wish. The link is below. Feel free to post your own version, if you wish:
http://www.horizonmag.com/pictorial/liberty.htm
No disrespect is intended in this post, to Emma Lazurus, nor Lady Liberty. (To mods: I think this poem is public domain)
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazurus
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!'
