Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings

by Emma Lazarus

The greatest American Jewish author of the nineteenth century, Emma Lazarus was a celebrated poet and humanitarian activist. This edition is a broad collection of her writings, including her essays, previously unpublished poems, her innovative late work, and, in its entirety, her most important book, Songs of a Semite (1882). Her best known poem, “The New Colossus” (the 1883 Statue of Liberty poem that made Lazarus a national icon), is also here, along with a selection of cultural documents that help contextualize her work in relation to contemporary debates about Jewish history, the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, immigration, and antisemitism.

Genres: Poetry

364 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2002

About the author

Emma Lazarus was an American Jewish poet born in New York City.

She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its lines appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty placed in 1903. The sonnet was written for and donated to an auction, conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise funds to build the pedestal.

She died of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Reviews

[Rachel B · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Lazarus clearly had a talent for poetry, I didn't relate with much that was here. A lot of it is translations into English of other poets' work, some of it is traditional myths in poem form, etc. Her original work was better. This volume also includes essays, and a play.

I was really turned off by Lazarus's racism and anti-Christian anger. She was Jewish and believed the Jewish people were inherently better than any other race. She blames every evil in the world on Christianity, grouping together all who call themselves "Christian," though she conveniently doesn't do the same for Jews. She writes off Jewish people who don't act in accordance to the religion as "not Jewish or Gentile." Since those are the only two categories that exist in Jewish thought, I'm really not sure how that works. 🤔
Interestingly, she also only embraced Judaism as an adult, and only really seemed to like the philosophical and political aspects of it. She deems the religious parts as unimportant and "no longer relevant." Huh? It's like she's completely oblivious to the fact that you can't take religion out of religion.

I did learn a few historical things from the parts that were included by the editor here and there, so that was nice.