Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010.

The Statue of Liberty originally had nothing to do with immigrants. It was simply a friendship gift from France to the United States, a symbol of French-American amity. But a lady named Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet in honor of Lady Liberty, and the rest is history.

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!”

Emma Lazarus grew up the daughter of wealthy Jewish immigrant parents. She knew nothing of homelessness or poverty or freedom-seeking from her own personal experience or background. But she worked in the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and raised money for it and came to have a heart for immigrants.

This brief but telling biography is especially timely in today’s America when we are again having a national debate about immigration and whether or not we as a nation still want to extend the invitation: “Give me your tired, your poor . . ” I believe we need to extend that invitation and to have an ordered, legal way to do so. Politically speaking, I’m caught in the middle again. I begin to see the uses of some walls along the border in certain places to control and channel the flow of illegal immigration. At the same time, I believe that we need to be a country that welcomes immigrants, especially those who are fleeing persecution, but also those who are escaping poverty and violence and who are willing to work to make America strong and to better themselves.

Emma’s poem still rings true today, and I’m afraid its sentiments are becoming lost in the Republican hostility to all immigration and the Democrats’ manipulative use of immigrants and their plight to further their own political ambitions. It’s sad to me that we can’t come together and advocate for a sane and humanitarian immigration policy that welcomes “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” to our shores while keeping out those who only want to prey upon us and take advantage of our freedoms to commit crimes.

At any rate, Emma’s Poem is an introduction to a poem and to a life that we need to remember in these times. The paintings by Claire Nivola that accompany the text of this biography are colorful and striking, a fitting complement to the story of poet Emma Lazarus and her powerful poem. If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

I’m reviewing and highlighting poetry picture books this month on Semicolon in honor of Poetry Month. What’s your favorite poetry-related picture book?