The so-called Statue of Liberty is, properly, the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. “The New Colossus”, a sonnet scribbled by Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) in 1883, is one of the many horrors of high-school social studies classes. The gist of the sonnet is its advocacy of unlimited immigration to the United States.

Sonnet

1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

2 With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

3 Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

4 A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

5 Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

6 Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

7 Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

8 The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

9 “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

10 With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

11 Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

12 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

13 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

14 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Analysis

1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

2 With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

The “giant of Greek fame” was the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue which stood at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes, the chief town on the Greek island of Rhodes. Helios, the sun god of Greek mythology, was represented.

The statue was erected around 280 b.C.e., and was destroyed, around 220 b.C.e., in an earthquake. What the statue looked like is unknown. The dimensions of the statue are unknown.

Why “brazen”? Why “conquering”?

Demetrios Poliorcetes, king of Macedon (337–283 b.C.e.; ruled 294–288 b.C.e.) besieged Rhodes in 305–304 b.C.e., and was defeated. His army abandoned its siege machinery. In gratitude for the victory, Rhodes used the siege machinery to build an outsized statue of a triumphant — not brazen; not conquering — Helios.

“With conquering limbs astride from land to land” invokes fanciful medieval drawings which depicted the statue as standing with one leg on one side of the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes, and with the other leg on the other side of the entrance. The architectural banality of that posture and its engineering impossibility are obvious.

3 Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

The possessive adjective “our” does not have an antecedent.

There is no Atlantic Sea. New York Harbor includes Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay. At the eastern side of Lower New York Bay, between Rockaway, New York, and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, there is the connection of the harbor to the Atlantic Ocean.

Geography necessitates “oceaned”, not “sea-washed”.

The connection of the harbor to the Atlantic Ocean is the Rockaway Point - Sandy Hook transect.

The statue faces southeast. The Sun rises in the east.

Perhaps, in a sonnet, a transect can be equated to a gate. If so, the transect is a sunrise gate.

The metamorphosis of the single transect into gates (plural) is unexplained.

4 A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

5 Is the imprisoned lightning,

A definition of “torch” is a length of wood, one end of which is covered in tallow, and the other end of which is not. For illumination, the tallow is ignited, and the torch is carried.

The flame of a torch is free, not imprisoned.

Lightning is a high-voltage discharge which produces a short-life flash of light.

A torch provides long-life, not short-life, illumination, and continuous illumination, not a flash of light.

The flame of the torch of the mighty woman is “the imprisoned lightning” (emphasis added).

Lightning is generic. One bolt of lighting is indistinguishable from any other bolt. There is no way in which the lightning of the mighty woman’s torch is “ the . . . lightning ” (emphasis added).

5                                                          and her name

6 Mother of Exiles.

One definition of exile is a person whose circumstance is forced residence in a foreign country.

Ovid was exiled to Tomis (in present-day Romania) in 8 C.e. Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302. Napoleon was exiled to Elba in 1814, and to Saint Helena in 1815.

An American citizen is in the United States, of right. When he is abroad for business or pleasure, he is not an exile. He undertook voluntary, not forced, residence in a foreign country. When his business is over, or when his vacation ends, he returns to the United States of right, and he resumes residence there.

An alien has no right to be in the United States, because he is an alien. His residence abroad, in the foreign country of which he is a citizen, is not, for him, residence in a foreign country, and it is not forced.

6                                                          From her beacon-hand

7 Glows world-wide welcome;

Line 6 has “her beacon-hand”. In line 4, there is “A mighty woman with a torch”. The terms “beacon” and “torch” are not interchangeable. “Beacon” refers to the function of a bright illumination, and “torch” refers to an item used for illumination.

7                                                          her mild eyes command

8 The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

What is an air bridge?

New York Harbor was not spanned by a bridge in the 1880s, and is not now spanned by a bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge, designed by John A. Roebling (1806–1869), was opened to traffic in 1883. It spans the East River, not New York Harbor.

1883 was the year in which Miss Lazarus scribbled her sonnet. She knew that New York Harbor was not bridged, and that the East River was bridged.

The so-called twin cities were the City of New York and the City of Brooklyn, both of which were in New York State. They did not frame New York Harbor. One side of New York Harbor is in New York, and the other side is in New Jersey.

In 1883, the City of New York was in New York County, on Manhattan Island; and in Westchester County (as it then was), through the annexation, in 1874, of three towns in Westchester County.

Also in 1883, the City of Brooklyn was in Kings County, on Long Island. Kings County included the City of Brooklyn, and five towns: Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend, New Lots, and New Utrecht.

The East River was between Manhattan Island and Long Island. It was the East River which the City of New York and the City of Brooklyn framed.

The two cities were not twin cities. The southern part and the central part of the City of New York were urban. The City of Brooklyn was urban along its East River waterfront, which faced the southern part of the City of New York. Elsewhere, the City of Brooklyn was suburban. The five towns were rural.

9 “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

10 With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

11 Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

12 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

13 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

Line 9 has “pomp”. In lines 10-13, there are references to people of various lower classes and lowest classes.

Pomp and people are not contrasting terms. Pomp is splendid ceremony and people are human beings.

A workable contrast is the uppermost class (people) on the one hand, and the various lower classes and lowest classes (also people) on the other hand.

However, “uppermost class” cannot be used as a substitute for “storied pomp”. There are four syllables in “uppermost class” and three syllables in “storied pomp”.

“Royalty” is not a substitute “storied pomp”. In equal measure, “nobility” is not a substitute (aside from its four syllables).

The uppermost class consists of royalty and nobility. Each of royalty and nobility is a subset of uppermost class.

The deluded perception, in the sonnet, of Liberty Enlightening the World as a “mighty woman” (line 4), who offers “world-wide welcome” (line 7) to all tired persons, poor persons, huddled masses, wretched refuse, homeless persons, and tempest-tost persons (lines 10-13), makes clear that Miss Lazarus rejected the entire uppermost-class set, not only its royalty subset, alternatively, not only its nobility subset, as desirable immigrants.

Another failed substitute for “storied pomp” is “blue-blood twits”. The number of syllables in “blue-blood twits” (three) matches the number of syllables in “storied pomp” (three). It is unfortunate that “twits” is out of place in a late-nineteenth-century sonnet.

So, “storied pomp” has to go, but there is no substitute for it.

A traditional taking leave of an insoluble difficulty is, “We look the problem straight in the eyes, and move on.”

The preference of Miss Lazarus for “your tired, your poor,” et cetera, notwithstanding, the United States has no obligation to take in anyone, and certainly does not have an obligation to take in someone whose personal attributes (e.g., criminality; illness), culture, language, religion, or national traits indicate a less-than-90% chance of socialization as an American.

14 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Line 14 has “my lamp”. In line 6, there is “her beacon-hand”. For line 4, it is “A might woman with a torch”. Does Liberty Enlightening the World hold a lamp, a beacon, or a torch?

Line 14 has “the golden door”. In line 3, there is “sea-washed, sunset gates”, which, as explained above, should be “oceaned, sunrise gate”. Is the entrance to the United States, in New York Harbor, delineated metaphorically by a door, or by a gate, or by gates?

Conclusion

Immigrants are to be admitted to the United States, if at all, pursuant to, and in accordance with, United States immigration law (Title 8 of the United States Code). Not in accordance with a sophomoric, sentimental product of the Progressive Era.