Response to "I Read It, But I Don't Get It" Chapters 6-9 & Access Tools

This post will cover the access tool listed on page 122: Tips for Reading a Poem.

The poem I will select for this access tool is "The New Colossus," written by Emma Lazarus. It is a very good poem and one that could be used in a secondary classroom or a humanities block that covers social studies and ELA. 

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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

1. Read the poem all the way through, twice.

Done.

2. Think about any background knowledge that you have that will help you connect to the people, animals, or objects in the poem.

This poem is inscribed on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty and was written to help raise money for the pedestal's construction. My great grandmother emigrated from Norway to the United States and may have seen the Statue of Liberty or heard this poem upon immigrating. The poem was written in 1883.

3. Try to make a picture in your head of what's happening in the poem.

I see the Statue of Liberty animated and announcing to the world, to the other countries of the world and their citizens, that the United States is open for business.

4. What do you think the poem is about?

Textual Evidence

Lazarus helps define what the Statue of Liberty means by creating contrast with it and the Colossus of Rhodes. Her use of words and phrases such as 'brazen giant' and 'conquering limbs astride from land to land' help define the Colossus of Rhodes as a statue in memorial to victory in war, and helps define the Statue of Liberty as memorial to something else. Lazarus uses imagery to describe both the location of the Statue of Liberty and its purpose: that "Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand / ... / ... and her name / Mother of Exiles." The port of New York City is referenced as a sea-washed gate, with the sunset gate referencing the idea that the sun sets in the west. This helps contrast the next part in which the nations with citizens that wish to emigrate are usually situated in the east. It also refers to opportunity and wealth, and is hit upon again with the very last phrase of the poem "the golden door!" 

Lazarus also references New York City with the line "The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame." This could be in reference to either Staten Island and Brooklyn, or Manhattan and Brooklyn, all of which were way more segregated at the time Lazarus wrote the poem and would have been recognized as different towns rather than just New York City. 

Further, Lazarus creates another contrast with the United States and its opportunity with the east, or Europe, writing "'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!'" This emphasizes the United States as a new nation in the world, one without a deep, troubled past. Lazarus writes the remaining soliloquy as an address to the other nations of the world and their citizens.

Background knowledge

The poem is describing the Statue of Liberty, what it stands for and what it means to immigrants to the United States. It contrasts the Statue of Liberty with the Colossus of Rhodes, and it contrasts the United States, the west, and its opportunities with the rest of the world, the east, and its histories and its troubles. 

This is a sonnet written in the Petrarchan style. It uses great imagery, figurative language, personification, anaphora, alliteration, apostrophe, etc. It is a good poem to use to teach some of those.