Sing Books with Emily, the Blog

We have two picture books in our house about the Statue of Liberty,

Emma’s Poem (The Voice of the Statue of Liberty)
Book Written by Linda Glaser
Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola
This book features the poem “The New Colossus,” 
Poem by Emma Lazarus
Set to Music as “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” by Irving Berlin

Emma’s Poem (Written by Linda Glaser, Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola) tells the story of how Emma Lazarus came to write the poem “The New Colossus” to help raise funds building the Statue of Liberty’s base and how her poem became the message the Statue of Liberty now stands for in the hearts and eyes of Americans and people around the world. This book features a photograph of Emma Lazarus’s penning of her poem and a one page biography of the poet.

Lady Liberty (A Biography)
Book Written by Doreen Rappaport
Illustrated by Matt Tavares
This book features the poem ”The New Colossus,” 
Poem by Emma Lazarus
Set to Music as “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” by Irving Berlin

Lady Liberty (A Biography) (Written by Doreen Rappaport, Illustrated by Matt Tavares) tells the story of how The Statue of Liberty came to be.  This book features two page spread biographies and gorgeous illustrations about the people who brought Lady Liberty to life.  The last pages contain statistical information about the statue and a timeline of important events.

Both books feature information about Emma Lazarus, her poem, the poem text (or an excerpt), and how the poem came to represent the voice of the Statue of Liberty.

I sat down to read “Emma’s Poem” (by Linda Glaser) today and discovered that Irving Berlin had set an excerpt (the most famous lines) of the poem to music.  A little more research revealed that Irving Berlin wrote the song “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” for the musical, “Miss Liberty” in 1949.

Read an interesting wiki article about the creation of the musical “Miss Liberty,” here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Liberty

See interesting documents related to the Statue of Liberty, including Irving Berlin’s handwritten “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” here:http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/statue.html

The excerpt of the poem that Mr. Berlin set to music is printed in both books:

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor
Excerpt from
“The New Colossus”
Poem by Emma Lazarus
Music by Irving Berlin

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 life my lamp beside the golden door.

The compete text of
The New Colossus
Poem by Emma Lazarus

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!”

Emma Lazarus’s hand penning of “The New Colossus”
(Picture from the Library of Congress website, to American Jewish Historical Society, New York and Newton Centre, MA)

A wiki article about the poem “The New Colossus,” here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus

Click here to see the ”Catalogue of the Pedestal Fund art loan exhibition at the National Academy of Design : December, 1883,”
http://www.archive.org/details/catalogueofpedes00laza

Page 27 has information about other literary donations and prints Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,”

Find a terrific resource for information about the Statue of Liberty, here:
http://www.hudsonlights.com/liberty.htm

I had the amazing and wonder-filled opportunity to live in New York City from August 1992 until April of 1999.  Those were wonderful years for me.  I NEVER lost my delight in the sights of the city, not the least of which were of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York Harbor.  In the last half of my stay in New York, I revelled in my nightly walks home from my job in the Wall Street area of Manhattan.  I walked North, past the Brooklyn Bridge then up through Little Italy, finally past the Puck Building and then to my postage stamp sized apartment on 17th Street (between Irving and 3rd).  I’d run up the 4 flights of stairs to my apartment, change clothes, grab my roller blades, run down the stairs, buckle on the skates and roll WEST to the Hudson River.  A paved promenade lead all the way down the island’s Hudson River edge to Battery Park.  The river sparkled with the setting sun, the sky blazing in breathtaking hues of orange, purple and red.  And slowly, the Statue of Liberty would come into view.  I saw her standing there hundreds of times and she never failed to strike me with awe and joy.

I sure wish I had known this song.  I would have stood there every night and sung it for everyone…or no one, just me and Lady Liberty.

I’ll be singing it now, though, with the beautifully illustrated books, “Emma’s Poem” and “Lady Liberty.”

This is a nice karaoke track, repeating the poem’s excerpt 3 times in a singable key and with a thoughtful tempo:
http://www.amazon.com/Irving-Berlin-Karaoke-Version-Instrumental/dp/B003CPHFCG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1275843617&sr=8-2

I like especially that this sing-along track repeats the song thrice, allowing kids to think about the song’s message and to quickly memorize and sing-along to create a shared experience.

Here’s a link to the karaoke track with teaching vocals, in case you need help matching the words to the tune:
http://www.amazon.com/Irving-Berlin-Karaoke-Version-Teaching/dp/B003CPBS1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1275843617&sr=8-1

A few personal pictures of the Statue of Liberty from a Family Gleichenhaus trip to NYC in late August 2010:

I took this one through the window of the ferry.  She’s an amazing sight.

I took this picture from the foot of her pedistal.

My daughter Eloise and I with Lady Liberty.  My son Mo had no interest in being in a picture with me looking so silly!
I hummed “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” through the whole visit!

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Eloise with Stature of Liberty, September 2011

Elosie made this picture soon after we returned from a family trip to NYC.  We took a photo of her with this same pose.  It’ll be a sweet addition to the post about Irving Berlin’s song “Give Me Your Tired Your Poor,” a musical setting of the Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus,” which has been illustrated into a number of beatuiful Singable Picture Books,
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/give-me-your-tired-your-poor-a-singable-poem-in-picture-books/