POETRY

Emma Lazarus Remembered by Jewish Museum

Her poem transformed the Statue of Liberty.

Poet Emma Lazarus transformed the Statue of Liberty from a symbol of aggression to one of welcome, but a new exhibit showcasing her life shows that her poem “The New Colossus” is only a minor reason to appreciate her, writes Edward Rothstein in The New York Times. “In fact, so many illuminating sparks are set off by this show, mounted in celebration of the statue’s 125th anniversary, that its closing section about Lady Liberty comes as an anticlimax,” Rothstein writes. The exhibit, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, unveils the fascinating story of how a fourth-generation American from New York's upper crust came to write so evocatively about “tired, huddled masses,” and how her vision of the country rewrote the statue's meaning.