SOURCE: Young, Bette Roth. “The Work,” “Jewish Themes,” “A Jewish Polemic.” In Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters, pp. 28-42, 52-63. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1995.

In the following excerpt, Young offers a thematic survey of Lazarus's works, beginning with her interest in heroism and culminating in her treatment of Jewish subjects and polemic against anti-Semitism.

When we look at additional subjects for Emma's poetry and prose, we find a significant number of artists, heroes, and great men who transcended geography and time: medieval French King Robert Capet; mythic heroes Admetus, Orpheus, Lohengrin, and Tannhauser; the Talmudist, Rashi; Spanish artist José Ribera; German authors Goethe and Heine; Shakespearean actor Tommaso Salvini; virtuoso pianist Rafael Joseffy, composer Ludwig van Beethoven; French authors Eugène Fromentin and Henri Regnault; British author and artist William Morris; American authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; political leaders President James...