The New Colossus

[GGT]

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

Not so much these days. And if you're already here as tired, poor, huddled masses, homeless and tempest-tost.....yearning to breathe freeeee.....sucks to be considered wretched refuse, huh.

[GGT]

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Co...otoblog900.jpg

[GGT]

No comments so far. Just another one of those weird GGT threads, full of vagueness? No news article to dissect, no pundits with which to agree or disagree, no academic studies to prove wrong.

What's this mean, what are we supposed to say about a very old poem and the statue made bearing its words? A national symbol that carries great weight, rather like a flag. For many, the beginnings of appreciating our Constitution. What are we supposed to DO with this Lady Liberty?

[GGT]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/...e3bea0a5ee.jpg

Wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Tea Party activist and lobbyist. Giving oratories and seeking funds, while wearing Lady Liberty foam crowns. Oh yeah, it's all about liberty, uh huh.

[Draco]

I really like that poem.

It's a testament to the greatness of your country. It's produced the greatest minds in this world, people who have made such significant and revolutionary changes. Especially in technology and medicine. The rest of the world should be indebted to the US for making it possible for those people to bring about such innovations.

[coinich]

I usually hate poetry. This particular poem gives me very little emotional involvement at all. Does that help your urge for comments?

[Skuld]

I very much appreciate the art of poetry as well as literature in a purely amateur vein and must admit that the poem did not affect me in an emotional level as much as it inflamed the desire to post poetry of my own! I will however do that in a separate thread as I would not want to encroach on your territory.

This poem does admit a tiny bit of patriotic pride into my heart but immediately is crushed by my knowledge of the particularly awful situation sustained by the Chinese immigrants of that period. This is the first thing I think of and so I wrote it down without further thought.

It also makes me think about a photograph of an Eastern European family consisting of one mother and two children sitting on a waiting bench at Ellis Island that I have in a book series entitled "This Fabulous Century." The woman's face itself conveys such a profound sense of hope and worry that for me it remains the quintessential image of the transatlantic migration era.