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Money had to be raised to pay for the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty would stand, so Emma Lazarus had a fundraiser in 1886. For the occasion, Emma wrote a sonnet entitled New Colossus. Years later, one of her friends made sure that Emma's words were mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Emma wrote:
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name, Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
'Keep ancient land, your storied pomp!' cries she with silent lips.
'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
