She died in New York City on November 19, 1887, most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma and was buried in New York City at Congregation Shearith Israel's Beth Olom Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Queens.

After the auction, the sonnet appeared in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as well as The New York Times. Unlike the conqueror at Rhodes, the New Colossus stands as a beacon that welcomes the exiles of the world. In turn, Lazarus, inspired by her own Sephardic Jewish heritage, her experiences working with refugees on Ward's Island, and the plight of the immigrant, wrote 'The New Colossus' on November 2, 1883. Whereas the Greek colossus is masculine and brazen, Lazarus’s speaker depicts the different power of the might woman and Mother of Exiles.

In 1883, William Maxwell Evarts and author Constance Cary Harrison asked Lazarus to compose a sonnet for the 'Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty' - an art and literary auction to raise funds for the Statue's pedestal run by the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty. She was deeply moved by the plight of the Russian Jews she met there and these experiences influenced her writing. In 1945, the engraved lines of Emma Lazarus poem, The New Colossus, were placed over the entrance to the. At Ward's Island, she worked as an aide for Jewish immigrants who had been detained by Castle Garden immigration officials. Inspiration for the New Colossus Emma Lazarus was moved by Greek myths along with Hebrew scholars and it was reflected in her work She also wrote of America’s cultural developments. What Is the Imagery in the Poem The New Colossus. ' Aside from writing, Lazarus was also involved in charitable work for refugees.

National Park Service, Statue of Liberty NMīorn on Jin New York City to a wealthy sugar refining family of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent whose roots extended to the very early days of New York City as a British colonial city, Emma Lazarus was the poet who wrote 'The New Colossus.

The new colossus