Sylvia Plath, author of “Lady Lazarus,” is “widely considered one of the most evocative and emotionally compelling American poets of the postwar period” (“Plath, Sylvia: Introduction ”). Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts and her father died when she was eight. Plath attended Smith College and, due to the oppressive conditions, fell into severe depression and overdosed on sleeping pills. After receiving psychiatric treatment, Plath enrolled at Newnham College where she met and married the English poet Ted Hughes. Following her affair with Hughes and their divorce, Plath became progressively despondent and committed suicide by inhaling gas from her kitchen stove ("Plath, Sylvia: Introduction"). American writer Sylvia Plath wrote many outstanding works including "Lady Lazarus". This work illustrates Plath's use of autobiographical influence, theme, and style, particularly her use of imagery. “Lady Lazarus” is an “extraordinarily bitter dramatic monologue in twenty-eight tercets” (Heaton). A Lazarus woman who takes pleasure in rising from the dead repeatedly is the speaker of this poem. The narrator begins by saying, “I did it again,” in reference to death. He then proceeds to compare himself to a Holocaust victim and claims to have nine lives, similar to that of a cat. Plath writes that this is the third time she has died and describes the first two deaths by saying, “Dying / Is an art.” Plath then compares herself again to a Holocaust victim, burned in a concentration camp. In the end, she appears to have gained some power through death and is resurrected once again (Shmoop editorial team). "A complicated literary personality whose biography is almost impossible to disentangle from her writings", Sylvia Plath in..... . center of sheet ......on: 'Lady Lazarus' by Sylvia Plath." LitFinder Contemporary Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2000. LitFinder for Schools. Web. March 13, 2014. Dahlke, Laura Johnson. "Plath's Lady Lazarus ." The Explicator 60.4 (2002): 234+.Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 March 2014.Heaton, David M. "Lady Lazarus." Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition (2002): 1-3. Reference Center literary. Web. 10 March 2014. "Overview: "Lady Lazarus."" Literature Resource Center Web. 10 March 2014. "Plath, Sylvia: Introduction in Literature: A Critical Companion to Gale." . Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jeffrey W. Hunter Vol. 6: 20th Century, Authors (HZ: Gale, 2005. 293-295. Network. March 13, 2014. Shmoop editorial team. "Lady Lazarus Summary." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. March 30. 2014.