![]() America still had to foot the bill for the pedestal (pardon the pun). But Egypt couldn't afford to pursue the project and it was decided, instead, to make the statue "a gift of friendship from the people of France" to commemorate American independence. ![]() ![]() It was to double as a lighthouse, and represent Egypt bringing light to the people of Asia. Bartholdi initially drew designs for the statue of a robed woman to grace the entrance to the Suez canal. The statue itself, by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, has an interestingly mixed intellectual history. It was one of many contributions to an endeavour to raise funds for the building of the 89-ft pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty was to stand. Lazarus's growing interest in the plight of Russian-Jewish exiles fleeing the pogroms informed the direction she took in this commissioned poem. Privilege seems to create an impermeable protective shell around some people for others it sharpens their alertness to inequality. She was born in New York City in 1849 to a prosperous Sephardic family. Lazarus's output includes a novel, essays, original poems and translations. Celebrating the spirit of republicanism, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus is this week's post-jubilee-jamboree choice. But they might not necessarily know the rest of the poem, nor the name of its author. "G ive me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses, yearning to be free…" Most people who can quote those lines would also know they had been engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty. ![]()
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