Search results
The best The New Colossus study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
Lazarus' famous sonnet depicts the Statue as the "Mother of Exiles:" a symbol of immigration and opportunity - symbols associated with the Statue of Liberty today. After its initial popularity however, the sonnet slowly faded from public memory.
In the poem, Lazarus contrasts that ancient symbol of grandeur and empire ("the brazen giant of Greek fame") with a "New" Colossus – the Statue of Liberty, a female embodiment of commanding "maternal strength" ("Mother of Exiles").
Mother of Exiles. The word “brazen” here does double duty; it means both made of brass (the Colossus of Rhodes was bronze-plated) and brash or arrogant , as conquerors tend to be. Lady Liberty, though equally “mighty,” is welcoming and protective by contrast.
Rather than standing guard, or extending open arms, the “Mother of Exiles”—a gendered, racialized figure—cries out with its “silent lips.”
In the poem, Lazarus depicts the Statue of Liberty as a woman who is welcoming all of those who need a home, and she names her the Mother of Exiles. She holds her torch in order to light the way of all of those who are seeking shelter in a new land.
Aug 14, 2019 · In the beginning of the poem, she refers to the statue, and she refers to America as a mother of exiles. She didn't say a mother of European exiles. She didn't say a mother of Catholic...
