Speakers

The poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus has different speakers. 

The first speaker of the poem is an unnamed voice who compares and contrasts the Colossus of Rhodes with the New Colossus in America: “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,/ With conquering limbs astride from land to land” (ll. 1-2). The voice might belong to Emma Lazarus, as the poem was written to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The third verse of the poem reveals that the speaker is American:

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 (ll. 3-6)

In the third verse, the personal adjective “our” suggests that the speaker is Am...