"Lady lazarus" By sylvia plath

M Fakhrul ikram

191010600597 (05SIGP001)

UAS Poetry

Introduction

This poem tells about how a depressed woman always tries to commit suicide. but it always fails and
instead makes this woman's thinking change from time to time. over time, after so many suicide
attempts, she even became someone who thought that after the suicide attempt she instead
resurrected like a graceful and beautiful phoenix after death. Related issues in this poem are feminists
and also how to love yourself, because each individual has their own strengths.

This poem is about how a woman who always wants to die because of depression, and always regrets
this life. and he also conveys in these verses for how women get up no matter what happens, this poem
wants to inspire any woman who feels depressed. This poem aims to make the reader rise from
adversity. A group of conditions associated with an increase or decrease in a person's mood, because
this is what drives a person's feelings and thoughts to try to commit suicide and end his own life for
various reasons that have occurred.

This is what makes this poem interesting to readers. Most people have experienced suffering at least
once. This suffering is often so deep, there are no words to express the sadness that is actually present.
However, this poem contains subtle and beautiful words into a dark and lonely feeling. the poem ‘Lady
Lazarus’ to let her readers know that there will be references to death. Lazarus, the well-known bible
character who was brought back to life after three days in the tomb, will set the tone for the rest of
Plath’s poem. Since Lazarus was brought to life again, this poem will be one of victory over death, just
like the biblical story. Plath's 'Lady Lazarus' is free verse lyrics. The poetic persona describes her
experiences from a subjective perspective. That's why it is a lyric poem. Besides, it is a confessional
poem. Plath's style of confessionalism deals with the subject of suicide, mental trauma, and individual
experiences. Events such as the Holocaust and its aftermath are depicted in this poem. This poem
consists of a tercet or stanza consisting of three lines. There is no specific rhyme scheme. However, in
some cases, readers may encounter some rhymes or italics. For example, the first two lines rhyme
together. Likewise, the last two lines form a rhyming stanza. Plath composes this poem in alternate
iambic-trochaic meter. The title of the poem ‘Lady Lazarus’ is an allusion to the biblical character,
“Lazarus of Bethany”. Through the title, the poet implicitly compares the character with herself, not in a
subjective manner but from the perspective of rebirth and decomposition. That’s why it’s also a
metaphor.
Another important device of this piece is enjambment. This device is used throughout the piece. For
example, the last line of the second stanza is enjambed with the first line of the next stanza. Plath uses
this poetic device for maintaining the flow. Some other literary devices used in this poem are simile,
irony, and paradox. Readers can find a simile in “Bright as a Nazi lampshade”. The rhetorical question,
“Do I terrify?” contains irony as well. Apart from that, the last two lines are paradoxical in sense.

Finding and discussion

Lines 1–3

"I have done it again.

One year in every ten

I manage it——"

The first stanza of ‘Lady Lazarus’ cannot be properly understood until the entire poem has been read. At
first glance, this doesn’t have much meaning, but after reading the entirety of ‘Lady Lazarus,’ readers
can gather that Plath is referring to suicide. She admits right off the bat that she has tried to die once
every decade of her life.

Lines 4-9

"A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as a Nazi lampshade,

My right foot"

In the second stanza, she compares her skin to a “Nazi lampshade”. This is significant because of the
idea that the Nazi people used the skin of the Jews to make lampshades. Plath uses this horrifying
metaphor to compare her own suffering to those in Nazi concentration camps. Furthermore, she
describes her face as a “fine Jew linen”. Jew linens were used to wrap the body of Lazarus before they
laid him in the tomb. Those were also used to wrap Jesus’ body before he was laid in the tomb. Plath’s
reference to the “fine Jew linen” reaffirms that she already feels dead. Or rather, she feels nothing just
as the dead feel nothing and this inability to feel is precisely what causes her to suffer. Plath continues
to use imagery of death to reveal her deepest feelings in the following stanzas.

Line 43-45
Dying

"Is an art, like everything else.

I do it exceptionally well."

It is one of the most important stanzas of the poem ‘Lady Lazarus’. In this section, she explains her own
interest and “talent” in this “art” of dying. As she has tried to die a number of times, she has become an
artist in this artform. She performs it better than others who die only once and forever. Like an artist
tries throughout her life to creating an everlasting masterpiece. Plath is trying to complete her magnum
opus in this art form.

Line 52-57

"Comeback in broad day

To the same place, the same face, the same brute

Amused shout:

‘A miracle!’

That knocks me out.

There is a charge"

She reveals that the hard part is coming back and facing the crowd. It seems to her as a theatrical
process. That is rather performed than felt. When she returns to her normal life again, everything seems
theatrical to her. It seems as if she already knows what is going to happen after her comeback. If she is
unsuccessful in her attempt, she has to return to the same place. The same, brute faces will be starting
at her in disdain and amusedly shout at her. She feels she is being put on stage when people call her life
“a miracle”. The sound of these two words just knocks her mind out. That’s why Plath takes on a tone of
sarcasm when she suggests that there should be a charge for looking at her or touching her.

Line 82-84

"Out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air."

It is difficult to tell whether Plath is referring to herself when she “rises from the ashes” as a physically
alive woman who has failed yet again at trying to end her life, or as one who has died and will return as
an immortal. She may plan to stop attempting suicide and take her revenge on men instead of herself.
Or she plans to come back as an immortal after she has died to take her revenge on men. The “red hair”
suggests that it could symbolize the mythical creature, phoenix, who can burst into flames and then be
reborn from its ashes. Either way, Plath warns men everywhere, that she is no longer a powerless victim
under them, but that she is ready to take her revenge..

Conclusion

At the end of "Lady Lazarus", the speaker warns her "enemy" of her impending resurrection, stating that
she will "rise with [her] red hair / And [she will] eat men like the air." Although the speaker did not
explicitly mention the phoenix, it is generally understood that — because of the theme of death and
resurrection

Poem

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

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin

O 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 me

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.

What a million filaments.

The peanut-crunching crowd

Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot——

The big strip tease.

Gentlemen, ladies

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 second time I meant

To last it out and not come back at all.

I rocked shut

As 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 theatrical

Comeback in broad day

To the same place, the same face, the same brute

Amused shout:

‘A miracle!’

That knocks me out.

There is a charge

For 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 blood

Or 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 baby

That 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.