Free At Last
Throughout the sonnet “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus utilizes rhyme to portray the Statue of Liberty and the freedom that it upholds. Lazarus portrays immigrant’s encounters with the Statue of Liberty and the influence that it has on its viewers. Rhyme is used at the end of each line of the poem in order to generate the structure of the sonnet. An example that supports how rhyme illustrates the Statue of Liberty and its representation of freedom is, “Keep, ancient lands, 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” (Lazarus 305). The author rhymes the words “free” and “to me” to develop the notion that the people who are encountering the Statue of Liberty feel as though they have freedom and independence. The continuation of rhyme in the sonnet helps to further construct the message of freedom, “…From her beacon-hand. Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command” (Lazarus 305). The author’s choice of rhyming the words “hand” and “command” represents how the statue comforts the people like a mother would by providing a hand, offering both liberty and shelter to its people. Lazarus defines the freedom that the Statue of Liberty holds for its people. As well as how valuable independence is for the people who encounter the statute, especially for the first time.
Lazarus, Emma. “The New Colossus.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Anne Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, p. 305.
