<Tr> <Th> Author (s) </Th> <Td> Emma Lazarus </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Purpose </Th> <Td> Sonnet was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the monument in 1903 </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 the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty . In 1903, the poem was engraved on 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>

Poem on the pedestal of the statue of liberty