Lady Lazarus Death Quotes Page 1

The poem begins and we're immediately talking about death. ("It"=death.) But death is introduced with a pronoun—"it"—so first-time readers of the poem may be a little unclear about what's going on, which makes the big reveal all the more horrifying.

In these stanzas, the speaker compares herself to a cat, which, as the old timey saying goes, has nine lives (or, in Lady L's perverse version, nine deaths). Right now she's up to number three. Hold on readers, we know now (if we didn't already) that this poem is going to be dark.

Of Lady L's near-death experiences, only one was a suicide attempt. In it, the speaker tried to shut out the world—and a mysterious "they" eventually saved her. Though we can't help but wonder: how much did she or didn't she want to be saved?