Rafael Gatrelle 1

Rafael Gatrelle

Mrs. Tubbs

Composition II

Apr 23rd, 2020

Annotated Bibliography

Hill, John Spencer. “The Phoenix.” Religion & Literature, vol. 16, no. 2, 1984, pp. 61–66.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40059246. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.

The article explains the origin of the Phoenix, a mythical bird that rises from the ashes of

its predecessor in Greek physiology. The article also explains how the phoenix is alluded

to in multiple different stories. The phoenix comes up in the bible and is often interpreted

as being a symbol for Jesus because the phoenix in its mythical stories takes three days to

be reborn from the ashes which is similar to Jesus who took three days to be resurrected.

The phoenix can also be seen as the virgin mother Mary and can represent the virgin birth

of Jesus because of the rebirth of the phoenix without any sexual relations. The phoenix

reappears in literature during the renaissance with new stories that build on the myth of

the bird. In modern literature the birds myth isn't really built upon but rather the bird is

alluded to in stories.

Meyers, Jeffrey. "Plath's 'Lady Lazarus'." Notes on Contemporary Literature, vol. 42, no. 3,

2012. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-

com.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A293545314/LitRC?u=txshracd2904&sid=LitRC

&xid=2c926712. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.

 Rafael Gatrelle 2

The author of this article argues that Sylvia Plath compares herself to Lazarus from the

bible. In the bible Lazarus is an older man who has been dead for four days and Jesus

performs a miracle on him and brings him back to life, foreshadowing his own

resurrection. The author then goes on to show the differences in the stories. The auther

points out that in the bible Lazarus is not able to talk and can’t explain what it feels like

to come back to life. In Plath’s poem not only does she outlive her death but is able to

describe what it feels like to her to die. The poem shows her slow decent into chaos as

she falls in love with death describes it as art. The author states that this is different from

other writers' stories that play on the story of Lazarus where they all keep the idea the

reborn cannot talk about their experiences of death.

"Sylvia Plath." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Gale, 2004, pp. 344-345.

Gale eBooks, https://link-gale-

com.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX3404705164/GVRL?u=txshracd2904&sid=GV

RL&xid=2eef5b96. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.

This article talks about Sylvia Plath's life and about the experiences she had from an early

life. They specifically point out her father's death when she was eight years old, which

seemed to influence her life greatly and shows up her in poems later in her life. As she

describes her father as a Nazi and herself a Jew, who he harmed and damaged her. The

article also describes her middle class up bringing in the suburbs which brought her close

connection to nature. She was able at a young age to see the good in nature but not like

many at a young age she could also see the evil in nature. The article describes Plath’s

struggle to express herself and to have a personal feel in her writings early in her career
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and later in her writings she really showed and expressed who she was which showed her

relationship with death.

Work Cited

Hill, John Spencer. “The Phoenix.” Religion & Literature, vol. 16, no. 2, 1984, pp. 61–66.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40059246. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.

Meyers, Jeffrey. "Plath's 'Lady Lazarus'." Notes on Contemporary Literature, vol. 42, no. 3,

2012. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-

com.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A293545314/LitRC?u=txshracd2904&sid=LitRC

&xid=2c926712. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.

"Sylvia Plath." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Gale, 2004, pp. 344-345.

Gale eBooks, https://link-gale-

com.aclibproxy.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX3404705164/GVRL?u=txshracd2904&sid=GV

RL&xid=2eef5b96. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.