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American Literature / Unit 11   AML 1039 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Emma Lazarus and "The New Colossus"

Captions available

The idea

Emma Lazarus, born in New York in eighteen forty-nine to a wealthy Jewish merchant family and educated by tutors, wrote "The New Colossus" for a fundraising campaign. Its sonnet gives the statue a voice that asks for the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

In practice

A statue, given a speaking part.

Where people slip

It was written to fund the pedestal.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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