Lady+Lazarus




 * "Lady Lazarus" is a poem commonly understood to be about suicide. It is narrated by a woman, and mostly addressed to an unspecified person.
 * The narrator begins by saying she has "done it again."
 * Every ten years, she manages to commit this unnamed act.
 * She considers herself a walking miracle with bright skin, her right foot a "paperweight," and her face as fine and featureless as a "Jew linen".
 * She address an unspecified enemy, asking him to peel the napkin from her face, and inquiring whether he is terrified by the features he sees there.
 * She assures him that her "sour breath" will vanish in a day.
 * She is certain that her flesh will soon be restored to her face after having been sacrificed to the grave, and that she will then be a smiling, 30 year-old woman.
 * She will ultimately be able to die nine times, like a cat, and has just completed her third death.
 * She will die once each decade. After each death, a "peanut-crunching crowd" shoves in to see her body unwrapped.
 * She addresses the crowd directly, showing them she remains skin and bone, unchanged from who she was before.
 * The first death occurred when she was ten, accidentally. The second death was intentional - she did not mean to return from it. She does not specifically identify how either death occurred.
 * "Dying / Is an art, like everything else," and she does it very well.
 * "it feels real," and is easy for her
 * She believes people should pay to view her scars, hear her heart, or receive a word, touch, blood, hair or clothes from her.
 * she addresses the listener as "Herr Dockter" and "Herr Enemy”
 * she is his crowning achievement, a "pure gold baby."
 * bothered by how he picks through her ashes
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">nothing there but soap, a wedding ring, and a gold filling
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Herr God, Herr Lucifer"
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">she is going to rise out of the ash and "eat men like air."
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">complicated, dark, and brutal poem
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"has done it again," she means she has attempted suicide for the third time
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">one accidental attempt and one deliberate attempt in the past
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Each attempt occurred in a different decade, and she is now 30 years old.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">she kills herself to punish them for driving her to it
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"peanut-crunching crowd" is invited but criticized for its voyeuristic impulse
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Holocaust imagery
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lady Lazarus addresses a man as "Herr Dokter," "Herr Enemy," "Herr God," and "Herr Lucifer."
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">horrific atmosphere
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">depressive suicide note