Liberty Island / New York Harbor

Insofar as "The New Colossus" functions primarily as an homage to the Statue of Liberty, it follows that the poem should take place on Liberty Island, situated within New York Harbor. Voyaging in packed merchant vessels from the far away countries of Europe and beyond, immigrants captured their first glimpse of America by way of the towering Lady Liberty, whose raised torch seemed to gracefully guide them into port. The statue's location does much to establish it as landmark beloved among travelers and "exiles," in particular (6). Seen from afar this artistic giant represents welcome as much as American power and prosperity.

Late Nineteenth-Century America

"The New Colossus" is intimately attached to its temporal setting within the last decades of the nineteenth century. The years 1880-1920 were a time of great development in American history, as well as the history of the Western world more...