Imagery and various devices

A close analysis of the metaphors, imagery and other stylistic devices employed in “Lady Lazarus” can help you have a better view of Sylvia Plath’s intentions with the poem.

Imagery

Imagery is here udnerstood as the use of descriptive language which creates images in the reader's mind. In poems, imagery is mostly constructed with the help of adjectives and adverbs that can help readers visualize what the poet is describing. In “Lady Lazarus”, imagery is used when the speaker depicts herself as having “a sort of walking miracle, my skin bright as a Nazi lampshade” (ll. 4-5) and as being “a featureless, fine Jew linen” (ll. 8-9).

Imagery is also employed in connection with death and rotten corpses:

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me (ll. 16-18)

Imagery helps us imagine the speaker curling up “as a seashell” (l. 40), while it also helps us imagine the...