Culture Spot 12: On this Day. . .October 28

On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty which was given to the United States from France as a gesture of friendship to commemorate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Did you know that the Statue of Libery is not the official name of the statue? In fact, its real name is Liberty Enlightening the World or in French, La liberté éclairant le monde. The statue was designed by Colmar's native son, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and the internal structure was built by Gustave Eiffel's engineering company. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the monument on its 50th anniversary and again in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan for its centennial after a $62 million renovation. At the statue's pedestal you can find inscribed Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus"

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-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

VOCABULARY

dedicated - dédié

a gesture - un geste

friendship - amitié

brazen - d'airain

fame - la renommé

limb - un membre (bras, jambe)

astride - à califourchon

beacon - un phare

glow - luire, rayonner

mild - témpéré, doux

harbor - un port

to frame - encadrer

pomp - apparat

huddled - regroupé

to yearn - désirer, aspirer à

wretched - infortuné

teeming - inondant, envahissant

shore - la côte

tempest - tempête

to toss - jeter, lancer