Lady Lazarus

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1965

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form & Meter

“Lady Lazarus” is written in free verse without any consistent meter, but the poet often utilizes metric variations to place an emphasis on a particular word or idea. The poem contains 28 stanzas consisting of tercets, which are stanzas of 3 lines each. This form slightly evokes a terza rima form, which Italian poet Dante Alighieri employed in his famous work The Divine Comedy. Although “Lady Lazarus'' is not a terza rima because it lacks the typical iambic meter and structured rhyme scheme the form requires, the association between this work and The Divine Comedy links ideas of heaven and hell and punishment and redemption, as well as the ability to journey into the afterlife and return to the world of the living. In addition, allusions to Christianity are also observable in the use of the three-line stanza which some scholars associate with the Holy Trinity. In “Lady Lazarus” however, the speaker does mention God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, referring instead only to an unholy trinity of “Herr Enemy” (Line 66), “Herr God” (Line 79), and “Herr Lucifer” (Line 79).

Rhyme

The use of rhyme in “Lady Lazarus” is an important poetic tool observable throughout the poem. Although the poem is written in free verse and has no consistent rhyme scheme, the poem makes use of both internal and end rhymes to accentuate some of the speaker’s most important points concerning her pain and suffering.

One of the most striking internal rhymes in the early part of the poem is in Line 17: “The grave cave ate will be,” with “grave,” “cave,” and the “ay” sound in “ate” emphasizing bleak darkness. As the poem goes on, the rhymes become more and more frequent, and there is a palpable shift in tone after the speaker declares that dying is an art form. A much more lyrical tone follows as the rhymes speed up and appear internally and externally, like in Lines 45-46: “I do it exceptionally well. / I do it so it feels like hell.” The final two stanzas culminate with a repetition of rhyme that ends the poem with a growl: “Herr God, Herr Lucifer / Beware/ Beware. / Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air” (Lines 79-84).

Anaphora

Throughout “Lady Lazarus,” the speaker regularly utilizes anaphora, a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. The use of anaphora, much like the use of rhyme, picks up halfway through the poem after the speaker declares dying as an art form. It appears more frequently by the end of the poem, beginning with the lines “I do it exceptionally well / I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real” (Lines 45-47).

The speaker utilizes this kind of repetition in order to assert herself, and the repetition contains an emotional reaction to the speaker’s feelings towards her own lack of agency and control over her own life. The use of repetition makes it clear that the speaker both knows and means what she says. It emphasizes her resolve and stubbornness, as well as imitates the repetitive nature of her death and resurrection. For the speaker of the poem, life is an inescapable cycle of pain and suffering; only by using the tools available to her can she break the loop that cycles around the art of dying and gain control over her circumstances.