Explore "1492" by Emma Lazarus on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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! " / 1883.