The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume I: Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic

by Emma Lazarus

New York City–based poet Emma Lazarus (1849–87) is best known for "The New Colossus," which is inscribed upon the base of the Statue of Liberty. The highly respected writer and intellectual corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson and was an advocate for indigent Jewish refugees and a forerunner of the Zionist movement. This two-volume edition of The Poems of Emma Lazarus marks the work's first major reappearance since its last printing in 1900.
Volume I features epochs, sonnets, and naturalist poems. The epochs consist of reflections on youth, regret, grief, longing, and other emotions. Other poems include "On the Proposal to Erect a Monument in England to Lord Byron," "Agamemnon's Tomb," "August Moon," "A Masque of Venice," and the renowned "The New Colossus." The collection concludes with "The Spagnoletto: A Play in Five Acts." Volume II, available separately, features verse with historic Jewish themes as well as translations of eleventh-century Hebrew poetry and works by Heinrich Heine, Petrarch, and Alfred de Musset.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2007

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

[Mark Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good poetry from a mostly forgotten poet. Emma’s most famous poem is The New Colossus. The New Colossus was written to help raise funds for the pedestal the Statue Of Liberty sits on. If it wasn’t that poem and the successful effort to get it placed on a plaque at the base of The Statue Of Liberty, Emma Lazarus may have not have been as well remembered. Emma died young at the age of 38 from cancer.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verkligen inte min smak. Omoget intryck, väldigt svulstig, men utan tillräcklig kulturell förankring för att göra det bra.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable due to formatting

I assume there's been some kind of error with the formatting. The titles are HUGE, and often not on the same page as the poem they're the title of?

Meanwhile, the text itself is in *tiny* courrier font. Got annoyed trying to zoom in and then navigate around the page; it's a book of poetry, it should be easy to flip through.

Emma Lazarus is a great poet. Part of her sonnet "Colassus" is on the statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, now I have to find a decent edition of this book if I actually want to read any of her lesser-known poems. I suppose I should have checked out the free sample before I picked this one.