Confessional Poetry

Confessional poetry according to poets.org "is the poetry of the personal or 'I' (para. 1)." This type of poetry started in the 1950's and 60's. The topics were typically about topic that were regularly accepted or talked about in public, such as, death or suicide (1). An aspect of this type of poetry is the way they talk about their emotions with the word choice and how things are said (3). Some critics of the style of poetry say that it's self-absorbed or attention seeking.


Lady Lazarus written by Sylvia Plath draws write from her own life. The poem sounds like it is about suicide. Various stanza make it sound like she is her own enemy, "Peel off the napkin. O my enemy. Do I terrify?- (Plath 4)" In fact, in Sylvia's own life she faced suicide twice, this first time is what sparked this and many other works. She called on that experience to help her write poems. From the poem itself you can tell that she was unsuccessful in her attempt to kill herself, "And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die (7)." That line does, in fact, reflect on her life. When she was 30 is when she committed suicide was successful. I believe that Plath wrote this poem as a form of therapy. An article title Seeking Solace: Confessional Poetry by Krista L. Klanderman gives details about how she used confessional poetry to help her fight depression after she tried many other forms of therapy, "After days of panic attacks and body numbing depression I sat alone in my room and wrote the following words:

Life has its ups and downs.

And that’s just it.

When we’re happy it seems nothing can bring us down.

When we’re sad it seems nothing can cheer us up.

But in the end we prove to ourselves

we’re wrong

because,

Life has its ups and downs.

Those short, clichéd sentences drew me out of my funk (Klanderman 4)." In Klanderman's case writing down what she calls "'words to live by"' were more powerful than talking to doctors and other kinds of therapies (4). Although Plath's and Klanderman's writing styles weren't exactly the same, it shows the different dimensions to confessional poetry. It can be dark and talk about personal things, but it can also be truthful and help to end dark times.

Another poem that is also considered confessional poetry is Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich. The poem is more open to meanings. Taking into account Rich's background and writing style of Vietnam War era and women's rights movement, Diving into the Wreck could be, generally speaking, about the identity of some type whether that's gender identity or just finding oneself in society. It's like she's diving into unchartered waters in the poem, "First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber (Rich 1)." Also, throughout the poem it goes back and forth between being alone and then seeing others in whatever 'wreck' she is in. I think that signifies a feeling, like in certain situations one can feel completely alone, but in reality they aren't, by searching they will find others in the same boat that they are. I think the last stanza in the poem really captures that meaning very well, "We are, I am, you are by cowardice or courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear (10)."

An article called Fatherhood in Confessional Poetry: One Facet of Men's Autobiographical Writing by Brian Brodhead Glaser gives an interesting comparison to the other two poems. In his article he tries to show the changes happening to confessional poetry, "Confessional poetry is being redefined. The term has always been ambiguous. (Glaser 25)" I think his main focus to show others that confessional poetry is changing because he is a man and as he states in his paper, "...in the rise of critical histories and theoretical works emphasizing the connections between autobiography and gender, a number of critics have approached the genre of confessional writing more broadly as a women's writing, exploring how writing works with and works out issues of women's experience and gender identity. (26)" Glaser also quotes Thomas Travisano and Adam Kirsch who both also argue against the term "confessional", "'how the confessional paradigm has prejudice, is still prejudicing, artistic evaluation.' (26)." Glaser does make a very good argument, both authors from the poems above were both women who both discuss identity issues and women's experiences. In his article, Glaser wants others to be able to see confessional poetry as a "men's autobiographical writing" (26). This article is important because it shows a literary movement within confessional poetry.

  

"A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 09 Nov. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017

 "Adrienne Rich." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 02 Aug. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Beckmann, Leipzig Anja. "Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)." Sylvia Plath Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Glaser, Brian Brodhead. "Fatherhood in Confessional Poetry: One Facet of Men's Autobiographical Writing." College Literature, vol. 36, no. 4, Fall2009, pp. 25-45. EBSCOhost


Klanderman, Krista L. "Seeking solace: confessional poetry as therapy." MINDS@UW (2008): 1-77. Ebscohost. Web. 22 Mar. 2017

Rich, Adrienne. Diving into the wreck: poems 1971/1972. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.