Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,”
- Source
- The New Colossus
- Date
- 1883
Meaning of “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled…”
Lazarus reimagines the Statue of Liberty as a welcoming “Mother of Exiles” whose symbolic greatness rests on receiving displaced and struggling people rather than displaying imperial power.
Where does it come from?
“The New Colossus,” written November 2, 1883 for the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund and represented by the U.S. National Park Service. The quoted invitation is spoken by Lazarus’s personified statue within a sonnet about immigration and refuge.