Emma Lazarus 1492 Analysis

Hannah Figg

Ms. Simpson

Advanced English IV

26 February 2016

“1492” Poem Analysis

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate,

Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword,

The children of the prophets of the Lord,

Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate.

Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state,

The West refused them, and the East abhorred.

No anchorage the known world could afford,

Close-locked was every port, barred every gate.

Then smiling, thou unveil 'dst, O two-faced year,

A virgin world where doors of sunset part

Saying, "Ho, all who weary, enter here!

There falls each ancient barrier that the art

Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear

Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!"

Emma Lazarus was born

Immediately in the first line, Lazarus uses personification by giving the year two faces in order to show that the year 1492 was a contradictory year. As Americans, we think of 1492 as the year Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. This marks the beginning of the land of freedom and opportunity. However, for a Jew, 1492 was the year King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella “cast forth with a flaming sword” and demanded all Jews leave the country of Spain. Lazarus’s ancestors had been affected by this movement, therefore forcing them to move elsewhere. However, also during this time many other countries were experiencing anti-semitism, therefore leaving Jews “hound[ing] from state to state,” distressed and fearful for their lives. Lazarus uses this line to depict her internal struggle. For her, this “two face year” marks a dark period in her family’s history, but it is also a reminder of her American heritage and all of the opportunities this country has brought her family. She struggles with both her Jewish and American identities, therefore exhibiting two

At first, when she mentions the “flaming sword,” this could be a reference to the flaming sword God used to banish Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Also, when Lazarus says “the children of the prophets of the Lord,” she is making a reference to a bible passage in the Old Testament that states that Jews are the prophets/first children of God. She uses these allusions to express her confusion about the situation. She does not understand why the first children of God would be punished and have to endure so much maltreatment. To Jews, God is supposed to be welcoming and loving except when his laws are disobeyed. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and therefore were exiled from the gardens, but the Jews had done nothing wrong. Lazarus uses these allusions to express her confusion and frustration with the