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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

by Emma Lazarus, 1883

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) is known for her poem ,The New Colossus’ in which she praises the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of freedom and happiness for the immigrants who came to the USA in the 19^th century.

At the beginning of the sonnet the authoress refers to the brazen Colossus of Rhodes. This was one of the seven wonders of the world that connected both ends of the harbour of this Greek island with its legs. By mentioning the historic colossus Lazarus she suggests that the Statue of Liberty connects the Old and the New World, too. In this way she idealizes the American policy of welcoming everyone: the Statue looks at the sea and the flame in its hand is maybe the first thing of America the immigrants see from the ship. This is the way the American people shall welcome them, too. In the last stanza the writer lets the Statue ask the European states to send the poor and the needy to America. In Europe, with its class system, they have no perspective of life whereas in the New World everyone is allowed to enter ,the golden door’ (line 14) and is welcome.

The usage of very positive and impressive adjectives in connection with America (,brazen’ (l.1), ,mighty’ (l.4), ,golden’ (l.14) ) underlines the contrast to Europe. The old continent is characterized only with negative words like ,tired’(l.10), ,poor’(l.10) or ,wretched’(l.12).

So in her poem Emma Lazarus underlines that she is proud of America to be the ,Mother of Exiles’ (l.6).

In contrast to Lazarus Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) is of the opinion that the gates of America are not only open but unguarded. In the first of the three stanzas of his poem ,Unguarded Gates’ (1895) he describes the varied and fertile land, which is as rich as the Garden of Eden (line 11). In addition to these great conditions of nature he mentions the American constitution which has replaced the European class system. Here not only one’s achievement counts, but every man stands level with the other in the law as well (line 15-16). In the last lines of this stanza he makes clear that men had to fight for such a state, which was no gift.

The second stanza begins like the first repeating the line ,Wide open and unguarded stand our gates’, but after reading the second line it is obvious that the author will criticize the situation now. People from all over the world come to America but they bring ,unknown gods and rites’ (line 26) with them, which are ,to stretch their claws’ (line 27) and are dangerous. With the comparison to the Tower of Babel he underlines his opinion that all these different languages cannot fit together as the reader knows from the Bible.

Aldrich goes on asking God whether it is right to let all the people come into the country if they ,waste the gifts of freedom’ (line 36). So he suggests only to welcome the immigrants who do not trample ,in the dust’ (line 38) the achievements of America. At the end of the poem there is a comparison to ancient Rome which was trampled by barbarian peoples called Goth and Vandal. After all, although Caesar had built the great temples wild animals roamed about on the Capitol.

With this last comparison he underlines his fear that all the things the first immigrants fought for will be lost if American people and policy continue to be proud of being ,Mother of Exiles’.

(I.Z., May 2006)

Unguarded Gates

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates,
Named of the four winds, North, South, East and West;
Portals that lead to an enchanted land
Of cities, forests, fields of living gold,
Vast prairies, lordly summits touched with snow,
Majestic rivers sweeping proudly past
The Arab's date-palm and the Norseman's pine--
A realm wherein are fruits of every zone,
Airs of all climes, for lo! throughout the year
The red rose blossoms somewhere--a rich land,
A later Eden planted in the wilds,
With not an inch of earth within its bound
But if a slave's foot press it sets him free.
Here, it is written, Toil shall have its wage,
And Honor honor, and the humblest man
Stand level with the highest in the law.
Of such a land have men in dungeons dreamed,
And with the vision brightening in their eyes
Gone smiling to the fagot and the sword.

  Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, 
And through them presses a wild motley throng--
Men from the Volga and the Tartar steppes,
Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho,
Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Kelt, and Slav,
Flying the Old World's poverty and scorn;
These bringing with them unknown gods and rites,
Those, tiger passions, here to stretch their claws.
In street and alley what strange tongues are loud,
Accents of menace alien to our air,
Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew!
 
O Liberty, white Goddess!  Is it well
To leave the gates unguarded?  On thy breast
Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate
Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel
Stay those who to thy sacred portals come
To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care
Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn
And trampled in the dust. For so old
The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome,
And where the temples of the Caesars stood
The lean wolf unmolested made her lair.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, (1895)