What, can these dead bones live, whose sap is dried,
By twenty scorching centuries of wrong?
Is this the House of Israel, whose pride,
Is as a tale that’s told, an ancient song?
Are these ignoble relics all that live,
Of psalmist, priest, and prophet? Can the breath
Of very heaven bid these bones revive,
Open the graves and clothe the ribs of death?
Yea, Prophesy, the Lord hath said. Again
Say to the wind, Come forth and breathe afresh,
Even that they may live upon these slain,
And bone to bone shall leap, and flesh to flesh.
The Spirit is not dead, proclaim the word,
Where lay dead bones, a host of armed men stand!
I open your graves, my people, saith the Lord,
And I shall place you living in your land.
Source: The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., (1889)
