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Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Words To Lead & Inspire


“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” – Emma Lazarus

Born in New York City on this date in 1849, Lazarus wrote poetry, prose, and translations, as well as political essays and commentary throughout much of her adulthood.  And while she was a well-known activist during her day, she is perhaps best known for her 1883 sonnet The New Colossus, that includes the above lines and is inscribed on a bronze plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Her fame grew further when the sonnet was set to music in Irving Berlin’s song "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" for the 1949 smash hit musical Miss Liberty.

While Lazarus often wrote on behalf of immigrants and the downtrodden, her own background was from privilege and deep American roots.  Both sides of her family came to America in the early 1700s.  But she gravitated to “causes” early, already writing well-received poems in her early teens.  Ultimately, her poems and essays helped shape America’s understanding of it immigrant class, with themes that produced sensitivity and enduring lessons regarding immigrants and their need for dignity.     

Lazarus died from cancer at age 38.  The Poems of Emma Lazarus, comprising most of her works from both collections and periodical publications, was published posthumously in 1889.  She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2009.  

In words that remain prophetic to this day, Lazarus wrote “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

                                                                                                        

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