"Lady Lazarus," a poem written in tercets, seems to face two realities: her own, and her perceived connection to the the Jews who had to face the worst types of torments imaginable. We may never know the full extent of what Jews and other minorities had to face during this time, but this dimly toned poem certainly tries to show an almost telepathic glimpse into their pain.
The first tercet looks to be based on autobiographical fact. "I have done it again./
One year in every ten/I manage it--" (all quotes are directly from Lady Lazarus, Plath).
Here, the tone is immediately ominous. The poet has done something. This is rarely a good thing. What did she do? Probably something that is not considered respectable. Knowing a little about Plath makes this very first line a clearly autobiographical one; if anybody had any doubts, she clears it up with the second and third lines. It is something she has done eery ten years, and she somehow manages it. Plath, at this point, towards the end of her life, has attempted suicide every ten years. What has she managed to do? Fail at it. She is more than angry at herself for waking up yet again.
As all first stanzas go, this one sets up a couple patterns. The rhyme scheme is going to be AA-. The rhymes will not be perfect, and at times, probably even need a specific diction to even rhyme at all. Sometimes the tercets are so robust with image, rhyming is just superfluous. As it is investigated further, she does seem to care about a rhyme scheme, though it may be non-traditional. In terms of other writing techniques, this tercet doesn't really go into figurative meanings, unless, of course, the reader knows about her troubled past and present as she sets to write this in 1962 (months before her successful suicide attempt). We do not yet have image, but that will come immediately after in the next tercet.
"A sort of walking miracle, my skin/Bright as a Nazi lampshade,/My right foot"
Because this is clearly meant to be placed together with the next several tercets, it, in itself, is fairly nonsensical. However, it is worth noting that in the space of one tercet, we go from a rather vague understanding of Plath's own life, and we are eerily transported into Nazi Germany. She is now a walking miracle, having survived her attempts at death, much as the Jews were walking miracles if they managed to survive their terrible existences (at the time). The lampshades were probably no brighter than any other, but now, we are fully immersed in dark figurative land. If one is trying to escape certain horrors, we can be assured that a lamp pointed in our direction will be bright, and it has seemingly caught her right foot. She has transported us to being these Jews, with her foot being caught.
The next two tercets broaden and darken this imaginary world, while prodding at the Nazis who pulled up "paper thin" linens. The tone is almost sarcastic, and full of rage.
Is this really what they were after, are these ladies who they really wanted dead. Her choice of words to describe the lightness of the Jews in camps is exemplary in its imagery and figurative language These people started out as strong as "paperweights," now they are just the paper under the weight.
The next three tercets show us the clearly morbid side to Plath. "The sour breath
Will vanish in a day." If anybody has visited someone in the hospital that is near death, one thing becomes very poignant, their sour breath. People who have ingested poison also tend to have a sour breath as doctors do what they can to counter the poison. If someone is able to survive after being this close to death, that breath quickly vanishes. Leaving out the physiological reasons why this happens, we know that we are once again back in Plath's world. The tone and imagery suggests a metaphorical eye roll.
"And I a smiling woman./I am only thirty." The figurative language here is almost one in which she makes fun of other women her age, women yu haven't had to go through the same childhood or mental instabilities. In the tercet beforehand though, she makes it very clear that no matter how hard this planet tries, ultimately, she will die. This thought is brought up again in her allusion of having nine lives.
The next several tercets talk about her own self-loathing. Oh, there's Sylvia Plath, the one who cannot commit suicide the right way. She has now been made into some twisted theater. This is not only autobiographical, uses the morbid imagery of the peanut-crunchers, but it is also pretty accurate. These tercets suggest a woman who was very aware of how she was looked at. The way she is admired today is the same way she was beginning to enjoy success i her poetry She clearly did not like it. "These are my hands/My knees./I may be skin and bone," This tercet comes after addressing her figurative and literal audience. She is reminding us that she is, too, a human being; that as we watch her attempt to kill herself, she is a woman in a lot of pain.
The remaining half of the poem discusses her life in the most literal, painful and shamed way possible. It is now just a burden to be alive. Perhaps one of the most profound tercets of this generation, or any other, is "Dying Is an art,/ like everything else./I do it exceptionally well." She has come so close to it, she could probably discuss it with the living, which is what this poem seems to be doing. The last part of the poem finds us back in imagery of Nazi Germany, where the doktors and soldiers are compared to the devil's spawn. It is worth noting that Sylvia's fourth attempt at suicide was successful. Though this poem touches upon it, a lot of her work invokes Nazi Germany. Her father is often compared to being a Nazi himself.
