Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) was a remarkable poet and writer by almost any definition. Born to a wealthy family in New York City, she saw her first poetry collection privately published by her father in 1866 and her first commercially published collection in 1867. She published translations of German poets. She published a second poetry collection a novel, and a play.
In the 1880s, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, a period of pogroms against the Jewish population became official policy in Russia (the same pogroms led the parents of poet Charles Reznikoff to emigrate to America). Lazarus, mindful of her own Jewish heritage, turned to poetry and prose to protest the persecutions in Russia as well as the struggles of Jewish emigrants and citizens in the United States, articulating what she saw as the necessity of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Fantastic Modes; Or, Is Magical Realism Just Urban Fantasy? – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.
Remembering William Stafford, Whose Poetic Region Was All the World – Steve Paul at Literary Hub.
Women Praying – poem by Jason Myers at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).
“Belling the Cat” and “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs” from Aesop’s Fables – Rob Crisell at the Society of Classical Poets.
Contemporary American Poets That Every Catholic Should Read (not to mention the rest of us) – an interview with James Matthew Wilson at Five Books for Catholics.
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