Ultimately, Lady Lazarus uses her status as a failed suicide as a source of power, not disempowerment. The haunting words of the end of the tale that she is a woman who eats men like air are meant to underline the fact that despite the fact that the doctors feel that they are the source of her coming to life again and again, there is a strength of spirit within her, a kind of devouring frenzy that is frightening and cannot be contained. "Herr God, Herr Lucifer" are all one to Lady Lazarus and her repeated call of "Beware, Beware: echoes Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" (79-81). Lady Lazarus is not a poet herself, but a performer, and through the use of such analogies and sharp shifts in language throughout poem Plath makes it clear that Lady Lazarus is a poetic creation. Lady Lazarus speaks like a barker, like a religious...
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