How Dare the Sun Rise

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Huddled Masses Yearning to Be Free”: How Dare the Sun Rise, American Ideals, and The Refugee Crisis Today

In this activity, students will analyze the iconic American poem—“The New Colossus”—in light of Sandra’s experience and discuss as a class whether the US is honoring its core values around immigrants, refugees, and the displaced.

The 1903 poem “The New Colossus” by poet Emma Lazarus is perhaps most famous for being inscribed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The poem is as follows:

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!’

The Statue of Liberty, located on Ellis Island, was the hub for immigrants making their way into the US from Europe in the early 20th century, and the poem is often regarded as emblematic of the American “melting pot.” Today, with an estimated 82 million refugees displaced from their homes, the “huddled masses” and the “tempest-tost” individuals found in the poem take on a new meaning.

In this exercise, you will read “The New Colossus,” and assess how this poem relates to the experiences of refugees like Sandra and her family, who did not pass through Ellis Island. Is this poem still relevant to them?

• Reflect and Analyze: Reflect upon this poem, now having learned about Sandra’s story—a story so harrowing, and yet one shared with so many other refugees fleeing difficult circumstances. How does this poem reflect Sandra and her family’s experience? In what ways is it different?
• Research and Review: Read through the UN Refugee Agency’s “Fact Sheets on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, Internally Displaced People and Stateless Persons” and “Facts and Figures about Refugees: Eye-Openers,” both of which contain the helpful infographics and illuminating statistics on the latest data on these populations as of the year 2021, or similar resources. As you review these statistics, ask yourself: Do these statistics align with the values as presented in “The New Colossus”?
• Write and Imagine: Next, use your imagination in one of two ways. You may choose one of the following writing exercises:

o Consider how Sandra would respond to “The New Colossus.” Do you think she would find it compelling? What issues might she take with it? Emulating her voice from How Dare the Sun Rise, write two paragraphs in response.

o In lieu of what you have learned about refugees, write a new stanza to “The New Colossus,” which tries to make the poem more accurately reflect the global refugee crises today.

After presenting your writing, discuss whether reflecting upon “The New Colossus” and the original American values of inclusivity and diversity provided a new perspective of How Dare the Sun Rise.

Teaching Suggestion: Particularly for the “Reflect and Analyze” portion of this exercise, it may be helpful to review the basics of analyzing poetry in Teach for America’s “How to Analyze a Poem in 6 Steps.” Leading questions about “The New Colossus” may help students prepare to conduct a deeper analysis on poetry. For example, students can be asked, “What do you think Lazarus means when she refers to the Statue of Liberty as the ‘Mother of Exiles’? What does she mean by ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free’?”