I Began To Talk Like A Lazarus By Sylvia Plath

‘Tulips’ is a poem that was written by Sylvia Plath in 1961 and was published after her death in 1965. Plath wrote this poem while recovering in hospital after recently having a miscarriage and having an appendectomy. This poem, set in the hospital, expresses Plath’s feelings and emotions at this time in her life.

In her poem, “Lady Lazarus,” Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical happenings to create a unique and morbid tone that reflects the necessity of life and death. Although the imagery and diction and allusions are all dark and dreary, it seems that the speaker’s attitude towards death is positive. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it.

Piercy’s continuous use of imagery helps the reader to understand that adults cherish the fake smiles and slim appearances. Girls are only seen as objects for the men around them and to fit in with the girls that have the same plastic appearances and personalities. The simile that comes after these lines, “Her good nature wore out / like a fan belt,” helps to emphasize the amount of effort that the girl child has put into making herself somebody that she is not (15-16). The reader is able to picture the girl, like a machine, working overly hard to become the person that everybody wants and constantly wearing herself thin, just as a fan belt does when the machine is being used improperly. The criticism and so called advice from those around her led her to believe that her only option to finally satisfy those that she was trying to please was to cut off the parts that were judged, leading to her demise. Piercy gives the reader a perfect image of the funeral and the girl’s body lying in her casket to again show all of the materialistic effort that was put into making her appear as their form of beautiful. The undertaker has polished the girl’s look off with cosmetics, a feminine nightgown, and even an unreal nose to replace the one that was seen as too big (20-23). The description of how the girl was displayed is another way that Piercy has used imagery to expound upon

Stereotypes in Plath ‘The Applicant’ ‘The applicant’ by Sylvia Plath is a poem that describes the life of an applicant who has high expectations from the interviewer. This poem literally means how the people from the 1950s were stereotypical about the lifestyle of others and how they could objectify people based on their gender by asking “First, are you our sort of person?” Plath emphasizes how they have to accept everything and how they are treated as materials rather than human beings. Plath uses diction to underline the idea of stereotypes. For example, she uses the words “bring teacups” to describe how the wife acts as a servant, serving her husband for whatever he desires.

On a miserable rainy day in WWII Germany, a little girl left the sickening reality she felt on the train and entered what would become her Heaven. Himmel Street, although it was dirty, cold and harsh, was Liesel's sanctuary. Although reality creeps in, the war breaks through the walls of her fantasy which is Himmel Street, her focus never remains on these cold hard facts for long. The blinds need painting for the bomb raids, but this is not what she focuses on.She focuses on her joy that she has with Papa as they paint. When the Hitler Youth gets stricter, she doesn't focus on their harshness. She and Rudy focus on winning a running race or the local street soccer game. As money runs short and her mother loses jobs, Liesel focuses on the reading

The speaker in the poem “Daddy” is someone who both fiercely hates her father but also passionately loves him. When she was younger, she compared her father to a god-like entity—always looking up to him and constantly seeking his approval. Her fierce hate towards her father stems from the deep rooted fear of him. The speaker is torn between these two polar emotions that have been constantly tormenting her and blames them on her unresolved emotions toward her father. In the first few lines of the poem, the speaker becomes aware that the memory of her father has presented an immense weight on her. Throughout the poem, the speaker makes multiple attempts to rid herself of the thoughts of father and

It is said that without melancholy there is no art, and there is no better embodiment of that than beloved poet and author, Sylvia Plath. Often referred to as one of the most dynamic poets of the 1900’s, Plath had no limits on her expression through poetry. Her poems ranged from flowing verses on nature to unconventional commentary on the social restrictions placed on individuals. She is most known for her poetic expression of her own mental anguish, never shying away from topics of death and despair.

Even at a young age, Sylvia Plath was motivated and determined to be successful. She was only eight years old when her first poem “What I See and Hear on Hot Summer Nights” was published in The Boston Herold. After the death of her father, the family was forced to move from their home near the ocean as a result of financial problems. Caroline King Barnard Hall states that:

Sylvia Plath is a “confessional” who puts her own experiences in her works that were written during the eighteen century. Sylvia Plath was diagnosed with depression, but recovered when she first attempted suicide in college. In her marriage to Ted Hughes she fell back into depression, which led her to attempt suicide and again this time she died .During the twentieth century, women in American culture were treated as objects without a voice, and male dominance suppressed them. Plath uses allusion, symbolism and metaphors throughout her poems “Tulips” and “Cut” to demonstrate the theme of women in American culture.

In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus”, Plath uses the horrific events of the Holocaust to symbolize the numerous deaths and rebirths of Lady Lazarus. Each death in the story is at the fault of a man and at the end of the story, Lady Lazarus rises from the ashes with a new vigor and devours all men to take back the reins of her life. Resurrection is an important theme throughout the poem and Plath uses both the name of Lady Lazarus, and more importantly, the nature of the mythical phoenix to emphasize this. The symbolization of the phoenix being reborn unravels the idea that Lady Lazarus invited these deaths with the knowledge that after each death comes a self-empowering metamorphosis.

“Tulips” by Sylvia Plath explores the idea of disconnecting oneself from life, only to be reminded of their responsibilities in life. The speaker in the poem is in a hospital room, separate from their family. No one is present in the white hospital room, except for the speaker and the tulips. The room is peaceful and allows the speaker to enjoy a lack of commitment towards anything. Unfortunately for the speaker, the tulips in the room remind the speaker of their life and bind the speaker to their responsibilities. In Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips,” color symbolism and personification contrast the peace of disconnection and commitments in life.

Sylvia’s Plath’s “Metaphors” is about a woman feeling insignificant during the midst of her pregnancy. Striking imagery is used to explore the narrator’s attitudes about having a child. Plath uses metaphors in every line, including the title itself, making the poem a collection of clues. The reader is teasingly challenged to figure out these clues, realising that the metaphors have

Plath uses similes and metaphors to describe herself as a foot being cowed by a black shoe- her father- in which she barely dares to move. Other very intense similes and metaphors such as "Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belson," and "I think I may well be a Jew" clearly show the feelings of anguish and hopelessness she felt under her father’s control.

Plath also focuses on the suffering that Lady Lazarus has to go through in life by comparing it to a holocaust. She compares the struggle of life to the melting burning of a Jew in the crematorium. Lady Lazarus “melts to a shriek./ [she] turn[s] and burn[s]” (Li. 70-71). She’s relating the burning of gold to her life. As she is trying to shape and form herself into the person she truly wants to be, she has to endure the pain although it’s all “[a]sh, ash[.]/ [y]ou poke and stir./ flesh, bone, there is nothing there[.]/ [a] wedding ring,/ [a] gold filling” (Li. 73-78). As the Nazi’s go through the remains of their victims trying to find useful objects, Lady Lazarus taunts them by telling them “Herr Doktor./ So, Herr Enemy” (65-66). Lady Lazarus believes that “[she is] your opus,/ [she is] your valuable,/ [t]he pure gold baby” because she is very unique considering how many times she has tried “[t]o last it out and not come back at all” but has survived and turned death into a form of art. (Li. 38,67-69) Although Lady Lazarus goes through life struggling, she strives and comes back “the same, identical woman” or

As Esther stands on the roof of her hotel in New York, “A stiff breeze lifted the hair from [her] head. At [her] feet, the city doused its lights in sleep, its buildings blackened, as if for a funeral” (Plath 111). The two different sentence lengths are juxtaposed against each other in order to convey the idea of loss and inner-conflict. The second sentence in the selection contains a collection of commas to elongate the sentence to depict Estherś continue battle against her depression. Compared to the long sentences in Bell Jar, Plath’s short sentences in “Tulip” gets straight to the point and gives the truth in an unconcealed manner. The speaker sees herself “Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,/And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself./The vivid tulips eat my oxygen” (Plath 47-49). The sentences have simple beginnings and very few commas to convey how the speaker is at the end of her life and slowly losing the motivation to continue. The choppy sentence also communicates the fact that the speaker is slowly losing consciousness in a subtle and natural