“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare once asked through the voice of Romeo.  The same question crossed my mind when I stopped to contemplate the author of “The New Colossus.”  The poem is one that comes to mind quite often when I consider the situation of immigrants and refugees around the world and particularly here in the U.S.

Something fascinating happened when I began to inspect the name of this poem’s author: Emma Lazarus.  First, I checked to see whether this unique name was a penname; it is not.  Then, I began to dig into the meaning of her first and last names.  Emma means “whole, universal.” A nice coincidence given her poem’s words to the masses of the world, you might think, but a cursory connection at best.

Then consider Lazarus.  Lazarus has a rich history that has resulted in two meanings.  First, this name means “God is my help” and is connected to the name Eleazar in the Old Testament.  Thanks most likely to its most famous example, where Jesus raised a man named Lazarus from the dead, this name also means “second life.”

Emma Lazarus.  Whole, universal; help, second life.

The very statue Lazarus’ words commemorated represents a new world, help for those in need, and a second life for those who come to these shores.  How fitting, indeed, that the poet who penned the following words had such a name.

“…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…
“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!”

Selections from “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus