Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air
Sylvia Plath
- Life
- 1932-1963
- Occupations
- poet, writer, novelist
- Notable works
- The Bell Jar, Ariel, The Colossus
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
'Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air' is the ending of Lady Lazarus, written in the extraordinary October 1962 burst that produced most of Ariel -- the collection published posthumously in 1965. Plath is quoted almost as heavily from her journals, published unabridged in 2000. The tumblr-era 'Plath quote' is a mixed bag: because the journals genuinely contain confessional aphorisms, fabrications hide easily among real lines -- check the poem or the dated entry.
Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air Lady Lazarus
Sylvia Plath