Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

• Plath finished the poem on October 28, 1962.

- It is part of the cluster of poems written in a burst of creative energy that were later published in “Ariel”.

Question 2

Form and Structure

Answer 2

• It borrows it’s form from the poetry that WH Auden perfected: “Light Verse”.
• Plath turned this light, humorous form into an extremely dark and subversive form.

-Tercets
-Free verse
Plath composed this poem in an alternate iambic-trochaic metre.

Question 3

Language Techniques

Answer 3

• Enjambment
• Simile
• Irony
• Rhetorical questions