'Lady Lazarus' - R. Abbott

Lady Lazarus was written in October of 1962, when Sylvia Plath was already thirty years old - the age of her suicide. The first time reading through all 41 of the poems in 'Ariel,' this one stood out immediately as one whose tone was very dark and whose theme seemed to be about death. Many times, Plath mentions how close she has been to death at several points throughout her short life: "the first time it happened I was ten...the second time i meant/to last it out and not come back at all" (35-38). Even the Biblical reference in the title leads the reader to believe that this poem will be about death, but instead of being saved from death as Lazarus was by Jesus, Plath clearly wishes not to be saved. She uses wonderful imagery of her being "unwrapped" and shown off to perverted people obsessed with the notion of someone who would want to die but instead was saved. Plath implements a similie when exposing a scene of her in a grave: "they had to call and call/and pick the worms off me like sticky pearls" (41-42). Plath blatantly admits to the audience that dying is an art form that she is particularly good at and for whatever reason she seems to embrace it. It also seems as though Plath is bringing her father's untimely death into this poem as reason for her hatred of life when she uses German terminology (Herr Doktor) and towards the beginning describes her face as "fine Jew linen" (9). The metaohor describing herself as a "pure gold baby/that melts to a shriek" also sets the tone for the menacing ending to the poem (69-70). The last few lines of the poem send an eerie shock up the reader's spine - one which Plath explains what she will do to the men who mistreated her during life in her afterlife.