Read the following stanzas from the poem and then answer the questions below.
SELECTED STANZAS FROM 'LADY LAZARUS' BY SYLVIA PLATH
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
O 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.
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.
Guiding Question for Text
How does Plath use imagery, allusion and poetic form to present the speaker's relationship with death and identity?
Analyse how Plath uses imagery from two or more different sources (e.g. religious, historical, domestic) to create meaning in these stanzas. What is the cumulative effect on the reader?
Examine the tone of the speaker in 'Lady Lazarus'. How does it shift across the selected stanzas, and what does this reveal about the speaker's sense of identity?
Discuss the significance of the allusions to Lazarus, the Holocaust, and the phoenix in the poem. How do these references shape the poem's themes?
Comment on Plath's use of poetic form and structure — including line breaks, stanza length, and free verse — and how these formal choices reinforce the poem's emotional and thematic impact.