Emma Lazarus - Poems
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Classic Poetry Series Emma Lazarus - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive Emma Lazarus(22 July 1849 – 19 November 1887) 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. Emma Lazarus was honored by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President in March 2008 and was included in a map of historical sites related or dedicated to important women. <b>Background</b> Lazarus was the fourth of seven children of Moshe Lazarus and Esther Nathan, Sephardic Jews whose families, originally from Portugal, had been settled in New York since the colonial period. She was related through her mother to Benjamin N. Cardozo, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. From an early age, she studied American and British literature, as well as several languages, including German, French, and Italian. Her writings attracted the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He corresponded with her until his death. <b>Literary Career</b> Lazarus wrote her own poems and edited many adaptations of German poems, notably those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. She also wrote a novel and two plays. Her most famous work is "The New Colossus", which is inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Lazarus' close friend Rose Hawthorne Lathrop was inspired by "The New Colossus" to found the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. Lazarus began to be more interested in her Jewish ancestry after reading the George Eliot novel, Daniel Deronda, and as she heard of the Russian pogroms that followed the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II in 1881. As a result of this anti-Semitic violence, thousands of destitute Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from the Russian Pale of Settlement to New York. This led Lazarus to write articles on the subject as well as the poem for which she was most famous in her lifetime, "Song of a Semite" (1882). Lazarus began at this point to advocate on behalf of www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 1 indigent Jewish refugees and helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York to provide vocational training to help destitute Jewish immigrants become self-supporting. She traveled twice to Europe, first in 1883 and again from 1885 to 1887. She returned to New York City seriously ill after her second trip and died two months later on November 19, 1887, most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma. She is also an important forerunner of the Zionist movement. She argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term Zionism. Lazarus is buried in Beth-Olom Cemetery in Brooklyn. www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 2 1492 Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate, Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword, The children of the prophets of the Lord, Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate. Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state, The West refused them, and the East abhorred. No anchorage the known world could afford, Close-locked was every port, barred every gate. Then smiling, thou unveil'dst, O two-faced year, A virgin world where doors of sunset part, Saying, "Ho, all who weary, enter here! There falls each ancient barrier that the art Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!" Emma Lazarus www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 3 A June Night Ten o'clock: the broken moon Hangs not yet a half hour high, Yellow as a shield of brass, In the dewy air of June, Poised between the vaulted sky And the ocean's liquid glass. Earth lies in the shadow still; Low black bushes, trees, and lawn Night's ambrosial dews absorb; Through the foliage creeps a thrill, Whispering of yon spectral dawn And the hidden climbing orb. Higher, higher, gathering light, Veiling with a golden gauze All the trembling atmosphere, See, the rayless disk grows white! Hark, the glittering billows pause! Faint, far sounds possess the ear. Elves on such a night as this Spin their rings upon the grass; On the beach the water-fay Greets her lover with a kiss; Through the air swift spirits pass, Laugh, caress, and float away. Shut thy lids and thou shalt see Angel faces wreathed with light, Mystic forms long vanished hence. Ah, too fine, too rare, they be For the grosser mortal sight, And they foil our waking sense. Yet we feel them floating near, Know that we are not alone, Though our open eyes behold Nothing save the moon's bright sphere, www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 4 In the vacant heavens shown, And the ocean's path of gold. Emma Lazarus www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 5 A Masque Of Venice (A Dream.) Not a stain, In the sun-brimmed sapphire cup that is the sky- Not a ripple on the black translucent lane Of the palace-walled lagoon. Not a cry As the gondoliers with velvet oar glide by, Through the golden afternoon. From this height Where the carved, age-yellowed balcony o'erjuts Yonder liquid, marble pavement, see the light Shimmer soft beneath the bridge, That abuts On a labyrinth of water-ways and shuts Half their sky off with its ridge. We shall mark All the pageant from this ivory porch of ours, Masques and jesters, mimes and minstrels, while we hark To their music as they fare. Scent their flowers Flung from boat to boat in rainbow radiant showers Through the laughter-ringing air. See! they come, Like a flock of serpent-throated black-plumed swans, With the mandoline, viol, and the drum, Gems afire on arms ungloved, Fluttering fans, Floating mantles like a great moth's streaky vans Such as Veronese loved. But behold In their midst a white unruffled swan appear. One strange barge that snowy tapestries enfold, White its tasseled, silver prow. Who is here? www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 6 Prince of Love in masquerade or Prince of Fear, Clad in glittering silken snow? Cheek and chin Where the mask's edge stops are of the hoar-frosts hue, And no eyebeams seem to sparkle from within Where the hollow rings have place. Yon gay crew Seem to fly him, he seems ever to pursue. 'T is our sport to watch the race. At his side Stands the goldenest of beauties; from her glance, From her forehead, shines the splendor of a bride, And her feet seem shod with wings, To entrance, For she leaps into a wild and rhythmic dance, Like Salome at the King's. 'T is his aim Just to hold, to clasp her once against his breast, Hers to flee him, to elude him in the game. Ah, she fears him overmuch! Is it jest,- Is it earnest? a strange riddle lurks half-guessed In her horror of his touch. For each time That his snow-white fingers reach her, fades some ray From the glory of her beauty in its prime; And the knowledge grows upon us that the dance Is no play 'Twixt the pale, mysterious lover and the fay- But the whirl of fate and chance. Where the tide Of the broad lagoon sinks plumb into the sea, There the mystic gondolier hath won his bride. Hark, one helpless, stifled scream! Must it be? Mimes and minstrels, flowers and music, where are ye? Was all Venice such a dream? www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 7 Emma Lazarus www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 8 Admetus: To My Friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson He who could beard the lion in his lair, To bind him for a girl, and tame the boar, And drive these beasts before his chariot, Might wed Alcestis. For her low brows' sake, Her hairs' soft undulations of warm gold, Her eyes' clear color and pure virgin mouth, Though many would draw bow or shiver spear, Yet none dared meet the intolerable eye, Or lipless tusk, of lion or of boar. This heard Admetus, King of Thessaly, Whose broad, fat pastures spread their ample fields Down to the sheer edge of Amphrysus' stream, Who laughed, disdainful, at the father's pride, That set such value on one milk-faced child. One morning, as he rode alone and passed Through the green twilight of Thessalian woods, Between two pendulous branches interlocked, As through an open casement, he descried A goddess, as he deemed, — in truth a maid. On a low bank she fondled tenderly A favorite hound, her floral face inclined Above the glossy, graceful animal, That pressed his snout against her cheek and gazed Wistfully, with his keen, sagacious eyes. One arm with lax embrace the neck enwreathed, With polished roundness near the sleek, gray skin. Admetus, fixed with wonder, dared not pass, Intrusive on her holy innocence And sacred girlhood, but his fretful steed Snuffed the large air, and champed and pawed the ground; And hearing this, the maiden raised her head. No let or hindrance then might stop the king, Once having looked upon those supreme eyes. The drooping boughs disparting, forth he sped, And then drew in his steed, to ask the path, www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 9 Like a lost traveller in an alien land.