Initially, she refused but writer Constance Cary Harrison convinced her that the statue would be of great significance to immigrants sailing into the harbor.

From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

In the poem, Lazarus contrasts that ancient symbol of grandeur and empire ("the brazen giant of Greek fame") with a "New" Colossus – the Statue of Liberty, a female embodiment of commanding "maternal strength" ("Mother of Exiles").

[16] Paul Auster wrote, "Bartholdi's gigantic effigy was originally intended as a monument to the principles of international republicanism, but 'The New Colossus' reinvented the statue's purpose, turning Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world.

However, it was [Lazarus's poem] that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants.

[24][25] Alfred Hitchcock's wartime film Saboteur (1942) had dialogue near the close, in which a character quotes lines from the sonnet.

[19][27] The musician Joan Baez collaborated on a soundtrack to Italian film Sacco & Vanzetti and used text from "The New Colossus" for some of the lyrics.

[28] "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor"—a song from the soundtrack of 1986 animated film An American Tail—includes a choral arrangement of "The New Colossus" praised by The Mary Sue as "powerful stuff".

[29] By 2020, the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City produced a New Colossus Project of exhibitions, videos, and curriculum related to the poem.