<Tr> <Th> Author (s) </Th> <Td> Emma Lazarus </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Purpose </Th> <Td> To raise money for the statue's pedestal's construction </Td> </Tr> <P> "The New Colossus" is a sonnet that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849--1887) wrote in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty . In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level . </P> <P> This poem was written as a donation to an auction of art and literary works conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise money for the pedestal's construction . Lazarus's contribution was solicited by fundraiser William Maxwell Evarts . Initially she refused but writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor . </P>

Who wrote the plaque on the statue of liberty