Lola Ridge
Lola Ridge was born as Rose Emily Ridge on December 12, 1873, in Dublin, Ireland, to parents Joseph Henry and Emma Ridge. Ridge grew up in New Zealand and Australia, eventually immigrating to the United States at the age of 34. As she settled in New York, she supported herself by working as a model for artists, a writer, and a factory worker, where she experienced the hardships that many low-income workers experienced. She found success as a poet, painter, and an activist, but Ridge became best known for her writing. Through her poetry, she advocated personal liberties and individual rights for immigrants, laborers, and women. One of her most popular publications includes The Ghetto and Other Poems (1918), a book in which she portrays immigrants in the working class as dignified human beings with dreams of a hopeful future.
Debris
by Lola Ridge
I love those spirits
That men stand off and point at,
Or shudder and hood up their souls —
Those ruined ones,
Where Liberty has lodged an hour
And passed like flame,
Bursting asunder the too small house.
Based on both the biography and the poem, which is the best conclusion for the student to draw about Lola Ridge?
Group of answer choices
Lola Ridge began writing about immigrants in the United States because it was interesting.
Lola Ridge's life in New York as a working immigrant was a strong influence on her writing.
Lola Ridge was not well known as a writer because she changed her name when she was younger.
Lola Ridge became a painter and activist because her writing about people's rights did not sell.
