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November 7th, 2009 - we have 234 poets, 8,023 poems and 17,869 comments.
Sylvia Plath - Lady Lazarus

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
0 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.

Added: on April 5th, 2009 at 10:53 AM | Viewed: 63930 times | Comments and analysis of Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath Comments (32)


Lady Lazarus - Comments and Information

Poet: Sylvia Plath (Sylvia Plath Art)
Poem: Lady Lazarus
Volume: The Collected Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1962

Comment 32 of 32, added on May 20th, 2009 at 6:17 PM.

There was also a beggar named Lazarus who asked a rich man for money. When they died, Lazarus went to heaven and the man went to hell where he begged Lazarus to save him. My English teacher says she uses this Lazarus as well b/c she wants to express the fact that suicidal people are asking or help but we only want to curb our curiosity (which is why she's an attraction in a 'freak show'/circus-tried to kill herself and the dr brought her back to life). Plath tells us to help others...
Idk, that's what my teacher told our class...

Steph from United States
Comment 31 of 32, added on April 6th, 2009 at 3:27 PM.

This is a real help for those who wanted to know more about Plath's poetry.

Angelina from United States
Comment 30 of 32, added on April 5th, 2009 at 10:53 AM.

i want firstly comment on daddy poems is perfect poem sylvia domination her father to leave her alone and resemble him by nazi ,vambire and other bad thing sylvia talk by dissatisfaction and by anger to consider about her sitoution after her father death she see all thing black and describe her self like a feet leave in shoes not normal shoes but this shoes is her father and we know feet leave into shoes and live in dark like if we are in coffine or mouslem and this foot day after day is be big than previously.sylvia leave in dark after father death.

samia from Sudan

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