Lady Lazarus

The word “ash” appears three times in “Lady Lazarus,” alluding to the aftermath of a fire. The speaker of the poem links herself with fire, especially when she alludes to and identifies at the end of the poem with a phoenix, a mythical creature that bursts into flames upon its death only to be reborn in the ashes. As well, the image of ash in combination with references to the Holocaust suggest the ashes of incinerated human remains (see below).

Though, in the context of the mythological phoenix, ash can imply rebirth, not everyone can see this potential in ash, only the speaker: “Ash, ash— / You poke and stir. / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there” (Lines 73-75). These repeated references to ash emphasize ash as the unknowable remnants of life. The speaker appears doomed to burn to ash, leaving nothing corporeal behind and disappearing altogether. A few lines later, however, the speaker draws on the image of the phoenix, which is a cultural symbol of death and resurrection. As the poem concludes, the speaker adapts the phoenix to stand for female empowerment: “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air” (Lines 82-84).