Fire From Heaven and St. Michael’s Tears

Somewhere in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty there is claimed to have been placed a plaque inscribed with a passage from the sonnet The New Colossus written by Emma Lazarus.  The passage compares the two bronze statues for purpose:

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.

The poem seems to suggest that the statue of liberty is a giant expression of a new concept, and leads one to believe that the new statue has a good purpose and the old one bad.  I’ll leave such discussion for another time, noting that the American statue, the new Colossus is a woman, while the Colossus of Rhodes was a man.  My point here being that by some choice, American determined to erect a bronze statue in harbor much like those inhabitants of Rhodes had done in 220 BC to celebrate their liberty from Cyprus.  In other words, our land shares some sort of connection to theirs.  (more...)

Fire From Heaven and St. Michael’s Tears