Bright Ideas

“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.”

— Emma Lazarus

These words were written in 1883 by 34-year-old Emma Lazarus. She only lived until 1887, 38 years, but she managed to write volumes of poetry and attract the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Her words appear on the base of the Statue of Liberty, the destination immigrants from Europe, including Ireland, England and the Netherlands, disembarked when arriving in America. Po...