In this phrase, "refuse" is NOT the word that means 'No, I don't wanna'. That one is pronounced like " ree-FYOOZ " .
In this phrase, "refuse" is pronounced " REF-yooz ". It means trash, waste, leftover, discarded stuff.
"Wretched" is pronounced " RETCH-edd ". It means miserable, sad, unhappy, heartbroken, sorry, depressed, gloomy.
So "wretched refuse" means depressed gloomy discarded stuff. Sad miserable trash.
An American poet wrote that phrase to refer to people, and the poem where she used it is written on the base of the Statue of Liberty. It's the words of Miss Liberty, calling out to the rest of the world and saying to the other countries "Over here in America, everybody is equal. If you think that some of your people are not as good as others, send them here, where they can be free."
The poem was placed on the Statue of Liberty, and the statue itself was placed where it is, because thousands of those people came to America from other countries on ships, headed for New York, and the Statue of Liberty was one of the first things they saw when they were getting close. Some of those people were my grandparents.
