Sylvia Plath "Lady Lazarus"

"Sylvia Plath"

I wish I had a Sylvia Plath 
Busted tooth and a smile 
And cigarette ashes in her drink 
The kind that goes out and then sleeps for a week 
The kind that goes out on her 
To give me a reason, for well, I dunno 

And maybe she'd take me to France 
Or maybe to Spain and she'd ask me to dance 
In a mansion on the top of a hill 
She'd ash on the carpets 
And slip me a pill 
Then she'd get pretty loaded on gin 
And maybe she'd give me a bath 
How I wish I had a Sylvia Plath 

And she and I would sleep on a boat 
And swim in the sea without clothes 
With rain falling fast on the sea 
While she was swimming away, she'd be winking at me 
Telling me it would all be okay 
Out on the horizon and fading away 
And I'd swim to the boat and I'd laugh 
I gotta get me a Sylvia Plath 

And maybe she'd take me to France 
Or maybe to Spain and she'd ask me to dance 
In a mansion on the top of a hill 
She'd ash on the carpets 
And slip me a pill 
Then she'd get pretty loaded on gin 
And maybe she'd give me a bath 
How I wish I had a Sylvia Plath 
I wish I had a Sylvia Plath

-Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams is my favorite musician, he's also very Sylvia Plath-like in his own right.  This just happens to be one of my favorite songs by him, and I couldn't help but think of it when I read "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath.  The song itself is very haunting, yet there is a sense of joy permeating throughout the song as well.  Perhaps it's because Ryan sees the connection between himself and Sylvia Plath, both are artists who face/faced internal struggles with themselves and external struggles with society.  The sense of joy in this song relates to the sense of joy in Plath's "Lady Lazarus".

Although the poem deals with some very dark subject matter, mainly Plath's constant struggle between life and death, the overall sense the reader is left with is one of joy.  Plath writes of taking herself to the brink of death over and over again, only to experience life more fully with each return.  She writes of how each attempt brings her closer to having a sense of herself, how she is reborn each time she "dies".  In the most haunting lines of the poem Plath writes, "Dying/Is an art, like everything else./I do it exceptionally well./I do it so it feels like hell./I do it so it feels real./I guess you could say I've a call." (Lines 43-48).  How sad one's life must be that in order to find happiness in life they have to experience the cold reality of death?

Much like the Lazarus of the Bible, Plath as been resurrected into life.  She has been given the chance to live and experience again, an opportunity she seems to appreciate by the end of the poem.  There is also an allusion to the rising of the phoenix in the poem (Lines 82-84 "Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air.").  Perhaps Plath thought herself to be immune to the effects of both life and death.  Maybe she thought that she could keep taking herself to the edge with little consequence, however, we all know this did not turn out to be the case.  Plath committed suicide in 1963.  Although some, perhaps readers of "Lady Lazarus", believe that this attempt was not meant to be successful.  Sadly, it was and Plath would not experience the rebirth that she had in the past.