- Printed letterpress in black type with rose and turquoise accent, 4 ¼” x 6”. The front of the card quotes the well-known sonnet Lazarus wrote in 1883 for a literary auction to aid the Statue of Liberty: The New Colossus
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 lightning, 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 lands, 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!” In 1903, the sonnet was inscribed on Liberty’s pedestal. Although millions of people read her words every year, they know little of this American Jewish woman’s life.
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