There’s power in the
bind! More so, when it’s a double bind!
To be specific, well,
the angst and agony of the double bind that's best expressed in Derek Walcott’s
memorable line, Where shall I turn, divided to the vein? [‘A Far Cry from
Africa’] best sums up with an equivalent vigour, the predicament of Emma
Lazarus too!
In like manner, as
discussed on our past posts, Nathalie Sarraute, like Derek Walcott, Salman
Rushdie and a host of writers of their ilk, had to battle with a host of
dilemmas and displacements that bespeak to this doublebind!
Emma Lazarus is of the
same feather, having inherited a Jewish American heritage, and hence battling
it all out, albeit with gusto, the hugey challenge of being part of two
conflicting worlds.
At the same time,
Emma’s works have such an electrifying ethos to its essence too! The reasons
are not far to seek!
Born with a silver
spoon, Emma was tutored by her own personal tutors who trained her with aplomb
in poetry, music, mythology, with added proficiency-training in French, Italian
and German!
Added, her benevolent
patriarchal patronage that she received from a doting father, helped Emma come
out with her first ever collection of poetry, titled, Poems and Translations: Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and
Sixteen, with a rider, ‘For Private Circulation Only’, and which she
lovingly dedicates to her father. And this publication happened when Emma had
just turned seventeen! (in the year 1866)!
Soon after, she had
the pleasant privilege of having a personal rendezvous with the great Emerson,
a connect that they both cherished till his death. Emerson was held in such
high esteem by Emma, as her mentor, as he quite often took that little time off
his busy schedules, just to encourage her to put down her thoughts on paper!
The reason why, when
Emma published her 1871 anthology titled, Admetus
and Other Poems, she dedicated it spontaneously ‘To My Friend, Ralph Waldo
Emerson’. On an aside, well, there were some kutty little hiccups, hitches and
glitches along the way, but they soon reconciled after these minor emotional
turbulences quietly vaporized into thin air and had died down from deep within!
Well, 1883 proved a
momentous year for Emma, when, she was asked for a very huge favour! A favour
that stood very high chances of catapulting her to such immortalized name and
fame for ages thence on!
Legend has it that, fundraising
was on in full swing, for doing the pedestal [the base] that would hold the
Statue of Liberty, [to obelixify it further, a menhir of epic proportions
gifted by France]!
Well, 'pen is mightier than
the sword,' goes the dictum, ain’t it? To true-prove this dictum, eminent
writers and prominent authors from the city started in right earnest to get the
patronage of people with like-minded vibes, to share with them on this, their great burden! So, it
was, when Emma Lazarus was approached by the legendary stalwarts of the city to
write a poem that would be sold in auction, in tandem with the works of Twain
and Whitman, she obliged them, rightaway!
The rest is, as we all
know, history!
Since then, her 1883
poem, titled, ‘The New Colossus,’ has become part and parcel of the nerve and
the verve and the cultural memory of the city!
Having thus found such a majestic
place for itself, engraved in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the poem
has been such an inspiration for people from all parts of the world, from all
walks of life!
So much so that, over
the years, these power-lines from Emma have so gently pervaded the entire
American psyche, standing for all things inclusive, that America has been an
embodiment of, all along!
Here goes Emma’s
empowering lines of high impact for y’all –
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. From
her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide
welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor
that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands,
your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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!
It’s been more than a
hundred years now, and these power-words have had such a sweet sway over all
and sundry, from all across the world, power-words that have greeted with
warmth and love, the millions of refugees who - were in the past, and who are still,
fleeing their traumatic present, - and making good their way to the blessed and
hopeful shores of America, with desires and dreams of greener and better pastures!
It’s no sweet
coincidence then, that, Dolly Parton’s famed number ‘Wildflowers’ and its
emphatic, motivating refrain, ‘Wildflowers don’t care where they grow’, quick
pops up your mind when you think of Emma Lazarus, on her birthday today!
To be continued…
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