Summary

“Lady Lazarus” opens with the speaker declaring “I have done it again” (1). To what “it” refers is not immediately clear, but the speaker states that once every ten years, “I manage it” (3). Describing herself as “A sort of walking miracle," she compares parts of her body to a series of eerie objects: her skin is “Bright as a Nazi lampshade,” her right foot is “A paperweight," and her face is a “Jew linen” (4-9). She then shifts to addressing another person, telling her “enemy” to “Peel off the napkin” that covers her face. “Do I terrify?—” she enquires, specifying parts of the skull: “The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?” (10-13). She moves from describing what sounds like a dead body to one that is reviving, claiming that “The sour breath / Will vanish in a day,” and that “flesh” eaten by...