27/02/2018
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated October 28, 1886, after it was gifted to the United States by France as a symbol of friendship. In 1903 an excerpt from Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus," written about the statue, was inscribed on a plaque mounted inside the pedestal. The whole poem is an American favorite and reads as follows:
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!"