<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>
where is the inscription on the statue of liberty
The New Colossus