Lady Lazarus
by Sylvia Plath
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right footA paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.Peel off the napkin
my enemy.
Do I terrify?——The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on meAnd I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to seeThem unwrap me hand and foot——
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladiesThese are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shutAs a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatricalComeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a chargeFor the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart——
It really goes.And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of bloodOr a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.i am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold babyThat melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
Meanings of Lady Lazarus
The poem “Lady Lazarus” presents a female speaker ruminating on her life and her attempted suicide, along with the nature, future, and situation of her act. The poem dramatizes the suicidal attempts of the speaker, presenting a dark side of her mind in a world dominated by patriarchal perspectives and suffocating circumstances.
Meanings of Stanza 1-2
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
The speaker, possibly the poet herself, thinks she has again done the same act. She has rather repeated the act after every ten years and has managed to repeat it. As she has failed in committing suicide, it seems that she has become a living miracle – a miracle of the lampshade that is as pale as the skin of some Jew removed by the Nazis. The poet ends the second stanza with an enjambment that will connect it to the next stanza, but both of these stanzas have clarified the main idea, which is the suffocation in the patriarchal world and the poet’s desire to die.
Meanings of Stanza 3-4
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?——
The speaker states that her right foot is heavy, like a paperweight. Using this metaphor, she continues saying that her face is featureless, and it is like a fine cloth of Jew linen. She then asks her enemy to peel off the skin or linen and remove this mask. Then she inquires her enemy whether her features terrify her or not. This is a very interesting question that she asks at the end of the fourth stanza, making the theme a bit clear that she has again come to life after committing suicide. It also shows her failed attempt. These two stanzas contribute to the main idea of suicide.
Meanings of Stanza 5-6
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me
The speaker asks the enemy again whether he/she can spot the features of her face. She is certain that they would be the nose, eye pits, and set of teeth. But only her breath is sour that will fade away within a day or would not persist. However, the flesh on her body would have the skin replaced as it got rotten in the grave, and she would be all right again. This stanza presents her image after she has recovered from her failed or botched suicide attempt. She asks her enemy about her condition and assures him/her that she will be all right again. This stanza contributes to the main idea of suicide by stating that her every effort to die fails.
Meanings of Stanza 7-8
And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.
The speaker states that after her recovery, she again becomes a woman and to a smiling and happy woman. It is because she is just thirty and has the right to be happy. However, she compares herself to a cat who has stayed alive nine times which means that although she has attempted to leave this world, she is a very hard and tough lady who is ashamed of herself that she has failed to annihilate this trash after every decade. These two stanzas contribute to her main theme, which is suicide and her life on this earth which seems a very tough nut for her to crack.
Meanings of Stanza 9-10
What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to seeThem unwrap me hand and foot——
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies
Terming the flashing of million light filaments, she casts a glance at the crowd munching or crunching peanuts in the arena and shoving each other to see her final act. Meanwhile, her handlers peel her burial cloth from her feet and hands. It seems to her a strip-tease act that she calls all the ladies and gentlemen to show her body parts after her resurrection. Both of these stanzas show the condition of her body after her botched attempt at suicide. These two stanzas further unwrap her thoughts about her failed suicide attempt, the poem’s main idea.
Meanings of Stanza 11-12
These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.
The speaker shows the spectators her hands, knees, skin, and bone and tells them that she is alive with her organs in working condition. She also assures them that despite this botched act, she is still a woman, or at least the same woman. Following this, she enumerates her attempts that she did it first when she was ten, and obviously, she would have done it at twenty, and now this is her third act. However, she is certain that the first attempt was an accident. Her main argument is that almost all of her attempts failed, and she still remains a woman. These two stanzas add further to the main idea of suicide and the poet as a woman in the patriarchal world.
Meanings of Stanza 13-14
The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shutAs a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
The speaker states that her resolve was firm when she did the same second time. She stated that as the first was accidental, the second was intentional, and she did it on her own. She thought that she was dead and would not recover from that attempt. She thought of the world like a seashell in which she was dead. The people called her repeatedly but removed the worms that clung to her like pearls. She is of the view that this attempt was quite serious, and she was almost dead, as the people thought that she was dead. These stanzas present the main theme of the death wish of the speaker.
Meanings of Stanza 15-16
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.
With her two attempts, one accidental and the other intentional, with a long duration of death, the speaker is gleeful in retelling the scene, saying that dying has become an art for her. She has mastered this art and now can do it exceptionally well. However, it is the hell she must go through every time she tries to kill her, yet it is real. She asks the interlocutor if he could state that she has a call from somebody to commit suicide and join that league. These two stanzas further add to the main idea of death by stating her thoughts about it.
Meanings of Stanza 17-18
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatricalComeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:
Explaining her death wish further, the speaker states that although she has attempted to practice this art at every place, it is the cell where she finds it easy to perform. She says it is easy to stay dead over there as it seems a theatrical or well-practiced act to her. Strangely, however, she comes to life again with the same face, the same place, and the same “brute.” Therefore, she shouts that she has again been the same with everything of the same color and existence. These two stanzas present death as an act that she performs as if in some theater. Therefore, it adds to the meaning of the main idea, which is death, through a little bit of dramatization.
Meanings of Stanza 19-20
‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a chargeFor the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart——
It really goes.
The speaker states that every time she comes out alive from this act, it seems to her a miracle. She is sick of this miracle that brings her to life. However, she would charge the people to see this miracle. If the people want to see her scars of the evening, she will charge them a fee for it. Despite her death, her heart beats continuously, and she would charge the people to hear this beating of her heart. The art of death that she has mastered has become a strain of the main idea of death that she has presented so well in the entire poem. Therefore, these two stanzas further add to the main idea.
Meanings of Stanza 21-22
And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of bloodOr a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
As she has become a paragon of acting to commit suicide, she has become a highly expensive actor. Therefore, the people would have to pay heavily for touching, speaking, or taking a bit of her blood, her hair, or her clothes. She then calls out her doctor and other people, terming them her enemies and telling them that she is not as cheap as they think. This stanza perhaps shows the reason for her wish to commit suicide and end her life. Therefore, it contributes to the main idea of her death wish by highlighting the reason behind this act by the speaker.
Meanings of Stanza 23-24
i am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold babyThat melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
After calling her doctor and her enemies, the speaker states that she is a prize for them, which is a highly valuable prize. She is, in fact, a gold baby who melts when dying, and only screams are left. That is why they take great care of her, and she knows that they take great care of her. She is of the view that all her caregivers are great people who know her value. This stanza adds to the speaker’s death wish, showing that she is a passionate woman who understands the sympathy of her caregiver and values their contribution to her life or death. These two stanzas add further to her death wish by showing her concern for the other people around her.
Meanings of Stanza 25-26
Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
These two stanzas present the lady as ash in her own voice. She states that the people around her have burnt her into ash, and then they prod and stir to look for any piece of her flesh or bone left. However, they see that there is nothing in it. All she has left behind is a cake of soap, her wedding ring, and a tooth of gold. These are valuable things for the people around her. This is perhaps the first time she has mentioned a thing worth living; her wedding ring. Maybe, somebody has ditched her, the main reason for her death wish. These two stanzas add further to the main idea of death in the poem by stating the likely reason behind this death wish.
Meanings of Stanza 27-28
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
In the second last stanza, the speaker alerts God and Lucifer to inform them that she will rise out of her ashes but stop short of saying that she is a Phoenix. She simply states that her hair is red and that she devours men in a simple act as if she is breathing. This shows her unconcern manners that she has lived through and the way she takes life. It also shows that she has no concern for her life. These two stanzas complete the main idea of death that she takes along with her stating the reason behind her death wish.
Summary of Lady Lazarus
- Popularity of “Lady Lazarus”: This poem was written by Sylvia Plath, a great American poet, and short story writer. ‘Lady Lazarus’ is a bitter dramatic monologue famous for the themes of death and oppression. It was published in 1965, two years after her death by suicide. The poem gives hints about the multiple suicide attempts of the tormented speaker. It also highlights the role of power and oppression in one’s life. The poem also expresses the ideas of not giving up and resurrection.
- “Lady Lazarus” As a Representative of Death: The poem details the tragic life of a lady and her several suicide attempts. She says that she has tried to kill herself many times but surprisingly survived every time. She asks those who saved her from peeling off the napkin from her face and see her wounded soul. She compares her suffering to Nazi prisoners to make the readers understand the reason for her discontent. As the poem progresses, she provides graphic details of the physical and mentality effects of suicide. She lashes out at her doctors and those who take her as an object of entertainment. She concludes by calling herself a phoenix, rising from the ashes.
- Major Themes in “Lady Lazarus”: Death, depression, pain, and power are the major themes of this poem. The disheartened speaker talks about her failed suicide attempts and give reasons for her resentment. She also expresses her anger for those who saved her from dying. Despite every effort to die, she still survived. She continuously states the idea that she is being used as an object of entertainment. She regrets that her actions are watched as an act of amusement rather than empathy. Moreover, the people, with their fake sympathies, are contributing more to her pain, and they are not allowing her to be free.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “Lady Lazarus”
literary devices are tools used by writers to express their emotions, ideas, and themes and to make the text appealing to the readers. Sylvia Plath has also employed some literary devices in this poem to narrate her failed suicide attempts. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem is given below.
- Simile: It is a device used to compare something with something else to make the meanings clear to the readers. For example, “And like the cat I have nine times to die”. Here the poet compares herself with a cat who can survive a tragic fall.
- Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. For example, ‘So’ is repeated in the twenty-second stanza of the poem to emphasize the point.
“Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought or clause that does not come to an end at a line break; instead, it moves over the next line. For example,
“The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.”
- Hyperbole: Hyperbole is a device used to exaggerate any statement for the sake of emphasis. For example, “To annihilate each decade” is hyperbole, and no one can destroy or erase time.
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. For example, “A sort of walking miracle, my skin; Bright as a Nazi lampshade.” Here she compares her suffering to prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ in “And there is a charge, a very large charge.”
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth”, “To the same place, the same face, the same brute” and “Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.”
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “Lady Lazarus”
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some verses and lines. There are twenty-eight three-lined stanzas in this poem.
- Tercet: A tercet is a three-lined stanza borrowed from Hebrew poetry. All the stanzas in the poem are a tercet.
- End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. For example, “hair/air”, “burn/concern” and “out/shout.”
Quotes to be Used
The lines below can be used to encourage people who are losing hope. Here the creature that is out of the ash is a phoenix. This can be used to tell that everyone can come out as a winner after a difficult time.
“Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair.”