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Comment 26 of 26, added on January 29th, 2008 at 2:28 PM.
Sylvia Plath almost killed herself when she was ten by accident. In the
first stanza she declares that she tries to commit suicide every ten years.
"I have done it again. One year in every ten." When Sylvia was 20 she
attempted suicide for the first time(first because she was trying to kill
herself the second time). Lazarus as was previously mentioned is biblical
alussion to Lazarus who was reserected by Jesus. She was found in a crawl
space under her house and was brought back from the brink of death. She
refers to "a Nazi lampshade" which were rumored to be made out of the skin
of people who were murdered in the concentration camps. This was put in the
poem to show that her internal and mental suffering was as great as that of
the physical suffering of the people in concentration camps. This poem was
written one year prior to her second suicide attempt. Sylvia succeeded in
killing herself in her second attempt. She sealed her children's door shut;
covering every crack with a towel. She then set out breakfast for her kids
when they would wake up in the morning. She proceeded to put her in her
oven and turn on the gas and killed herself.
Vin from United States
Comment 25 of 26, added on December 27th, 2007 at 9:45 AM.
i'm not much into poetry but i love this one. i'm always interested in
something i can relate to. this poem was quoted in the movie sylvia and i
think it's about suicide. always tryin to finally end it at all but the
title lazarus suggests of keep coming back.
joan from Philippines
Comment 24 of 26, added on April 25th, 2006 at 8:03 PM.
someone may have written this already but i don't believe this is about
feminist ideals at all. i can clearly see from this poem that this is most
likely sylvia equating her death with lazarus and equating her suffering
with the holocaust. she was brought back from the dead like lazarus and
didn't want to be, and also her foreshadowing is quite apparent. she
obviously places suicide as a piece of art--capitalizing "Number Three" as
if it is actually a piece of artwork? she is burning inside like the jews
were burning in concentration camps, and i believe this may be one of (if
not the best) of plath's poems.
sue from Denmark
Comment 23 of 26, added on April 17th, 2006 at 9:31 AM.
I thought that the reference to Lazarus was biblical - Lazarus, the brother
of Martha and Mary, who was brought back from the dead by Jesus. Comments?
S G from India
Comment 22 of 26, added on March 19th, 2006 at 9:14 AM.
LADY LAZARUS
This poem is about a vulnerable person, sylvia, who despite being
strong/immortal? was vying for the blessing of others. e.g. father/ Ted
Lazarus relied on another to be raised.
So despite the seeming anger/strength individuality in the author there was
never that true autonomy /independance.
The suicide attempts reflect this hopelessness at achieving self worth
independant of the man.
Hence the last line: and i eat men like air
men being likened to an eternal/essential thing
YET not sustaining to 'eat'
so an inappropriate relation to men/
please post on LAZARUSpoem analysis for me* the page is down on my server
Anna Regan from United Kingdom
Comment 21 of 26, added on February 12th, 2006 at 9:06 AM.
this poem is by far one of my favorites i was able to analyze this very
easily and even connect with it on a deep level. i love poems about suicide
and depression for a couple of reasons one i can relate to them and 2 i
like poems that are riddled with emotion. i feel the deeper the more pain
or compassion the better it connects with the reader on many levels. i love
this poem if only the great sylvia plath was here today to see how far her
work has come
tarya from United States
Comment 20 of 26, added on January 25th, 2006 at 3:32 PM.
It is by far the greatest poem I've ever read. I believe that she made a
lot of contributions to the feminist movement and therefore she deserves a
place in history books,
Fernando from United States
Comment 19 of 26, added on December 12th, 2005 at 5:29 AM.
I usually have a very hard time analyzing poetry, but Plath's
confessionalist works are clear to me. As one of the previous commentors
noted, only she knows exactly what she is saying, but we can connect with
her meanings through the emotions she is not afraid to show in this poem.
She believed that you should take the mundane, everyday sorrow and connect
it with something bigger. That is why this poem alludes to the Nazis and
the Jews. She is incorportating her emotionnal struggle and her battle
with manic depression into the sorrows of the world. She does this so that
even those of us who have not posted hours in a mental treatment facility
can understand the emotions tied to her suffering. I don't think she
equates herself with the Jews and their level of suffering. She was more
intelligent and insightful than that. She just wants to convey human
emotion at every level of the spectrum so that even the "peanut crunching
crowd", who are portrayed (quite accurately) as unfeeling, or unable to
make the connections between different forms of human suffering and
persecution. Another thing she is doing in this poem is contrasting her
exterior with her interior. She is powerful on the outside, like the Nazi
lampshade, but she is frail on the inside. Her death is her control over
the situation; her only control. She was separated with two small
children, low on money, and ill. It was all she knew to do at that point.
But what kept happening is that she kept surviving, and that was simply the
bane of her existence. She was tired of waking up to the "same place, the
same face, the same brute..." So finally, she triumphed. She has arisen
through her work, and as one of the other commentors said, she lives on
through her poetry.
Leah from Germany
Comment 18 of 26, added on December 6th, 2005 at 5:47 AM.
PLATH's Lady Lazarus is a deed of modern society.Through this poem Plath's
expresses her deep feelings and disgust against the deep rooted stubborn
patriarchal society.In the poem , as mentioned 'nine times to die' and in
her personal life also , Plath is a modern Feminist martyr who expresses
her revolt against this ill fated society. Plath's LADY LAZARUS is actually
a social deed. It is important in the history of Englishliterature for many
causes. It combines the society, politics, economics, as well as personal
grudge against society of a love-lorn, desolated female persona.All these
ideas are rolled into one.Simultaneously, here expresses Plath's another
attitude of fleeting and escapist mentality like the romantics, but at the
end her robust ambition of being resurrected like the mythical Phoenix is
certainly optimistic.
SABUJ SARKAR from India
Comment 17 of 26, added on November 29th, 2005 at 3:36 AM.
what does anyone think about the pronoun "I" as a tool in this poem? i
think it works better than other Plath poems like Moon and the yew tree
because of the "I" but the way she makes her self sound tormented riles me.
she wasnt jewish, but she used that to detatch herself further from her
father Otto, because he was German. to make it that she was as tormented
in a physical sense as people who were tortured in the holocaust must be
justified by her mental state-but the fact that she condemns people
(peanut-crunching crowd) for reading her poems, confuses me-Plath's whole
life was geared towards becoming this amazing writer, to be respected by
everyone.
Heather from United Kingdom
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
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Sylvia Plath almost killed herself when she was ten by accident. In the
first stanza she declares that she tries to commit suicide every ten years.
"I have done it again. One year in every ten." When Sylvia was 20 she
attempted suicide for the first time(first because she was trying to kill
herself the second time). Lazarus as was previously mentioned is biblical
alussion to Lazarus who was reserected by Jesus. She was found in a crawl
space under her house and was brought back from the brink of death. She
refers to "a Nazi lampshade" which were rumored to be made out of the skin
of people who were murdered in the concentration camps. This was put in the
poem to show that her internal and mental suffering was as great as that of
the physical suffering of the people in concentration camps. This poem was
written one year prior to her second suicide attempt. Sylvia succeeded in
killing herself in her second attempt. She sealed her children's door shut;
covering every crack with a towel. She then set out breakfast for her kids
when they would wake up in the morning. She proceeded to put her in her
oven and turn on the gas and killed herself.
Vin from United States