![]() From 'The New Colossus', inscribed at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, New York harbour,1883. |
Still on Israel's head forlorn Every nation heaps its scorn. 496
Emma LazarusI seem to have always one little window looking but into life.
Emma LazarusPoetry must be simple, sensuous, or impassioned.
Emma LazarusSweet empty sky of June without a stain, Faint, gray-blue dewy mists on far-off hills Warm, yellow sunlight flooding mead and plain, That each dark copse and hollow overfills:
Emma LazarusNo signs of life are here: the very prayers Inscribed around are in a language dead.
Emma LazarusAlas! we wake: one scene alone remains, The exiles by the streams of Babylon.
Emma LazarusThe funeral and the marriage, now, alas! We know not which is sadder to recall.
Emma LazarusA lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies, And every day in dusky glory steeps Their sculptured slumber of five centuries.
Emma LazarusLo a black line of birds in wavering thread Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!
Emma LazarusNathless the sacred shrine is holy yet, With its lone floors where reverent feet once trod. Take off your shoes as by the burning bush, Before the mystery of death and God.
Emma LazarusNo man had ever heard a nightingale, When once a keen-eyed naturalist was stirred To study and define what is a bird.
Emma Lazarus