Stylistic Analysis of Lady Lazarus

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The name of this poem, Lady Lazarus, alludes to the biblical story of Lazarus who was raised from the dead by Jesus. Here the poet herself personifies this religious personality by claiming that she too has returned from death. The poem is about a third suicide attempt but since she did not die it is ironical when she makes the Lazarus claim. Lazarus and his association with her suicide is a recurring metaphor and could be regarded as an allegory. Another allegory is the recurring theme of being a Jewish victim of the Nazi extermination camps during World War Two. The poet begins by saying: “I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it …” Here is an example of a paralepsis. The attempted suicide is being referred to but is not mentioned in name. In fact the question of what she is done is left hanging like the unfinished sentence. It seems that she wants to avoid mentioning what she has done. Just saying she has done it is sufficient. She goes on to say: “A sort of walking miracle” This is the personification or prosopopoeia of miracle since miracles cannot take on the human quality of walking. This is also a hyperbole where the survival of a suicide attempt is being exaggerated. There is a sense of irony when she compares her skin as being: “bright as a Nazi lampshade” Brightness is associated with life and hope and seems totally out of place in connection with a lampshade made from the skin of a dead European Jew. The simile of having skin as bright as a Nazi lampshade also indicates a paradox where the living skin contrasts starkly with the dead skin of the lampshade, suggesting that just as the dead Jewish skin is lit up by an external light, the poets light also comes from some external source. Just as the Jewish skin is being put to use by someone other than its owner, in a macabre way it could be said that it is being abused, so too

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