Confessional Poetry
Steph P & Dani M
Definition
• The genuine strength of confessional poets,
combined with the pity evoked by their high
suicide rate, a romantic confusion between
poetic excellence and inner torment
• Berryman, Plath, Sexton all committed suicide
Berryman
Definition cont.
• Confessional poetry is a type of lyric and
narrative verse
• It deals with intimate experiences and
facts of poets own life
Plath Family
Elements and Style
• Private experiences with feelings about
death, trauma, depression, and
relationships were addressed in this type
of poetry
• “I” is used more than “you”
Sylvia Plath
Daddy
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time-Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
Daddy
The first two stanzas of the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia
Plath are simple and sound more like a strange
nursery rhyme than an angry vision of her father.
The rhyme scheme in “Daddy” lulls the reader into a
hypnotic state and the language is free from the kind
of dark imagery and terms in the poem. This nursery
rhyme’s innocence is destroyed with the images and
language of Nazism and several references to
horrible wars. Although the reader of the poem gets
the impression of the “daddy” depicted in the poem,
he does not exist outside of images of men from
history or historical photographs.
Sylvia Plath’s father
Baby Picture
Anne Sexton
It's in the heart of the grape
where that smile lies.
It's in the good-bye-bow in the hair
where that smile lies.
It's in the clerical collar of the
dress
where that smile lies.
What smile?
The smile of my seventh year,
caught here in the painted
photograph.
It's peeling now, age has got it,
a kind of cancer of the background
and also in the assorted features.
It's like a rotten flag
or a vegetable from the
refrigerator,
pocked with mold.
I am aging without sound,
into darkness, darkness.
Anne,
who are you?
I open the vein
and my blood rings like roller
skates.
I open the mouth
and my teeth are an angry army.
I open the eyes
and they go sick like dogs
with what they have seen.
I open the hair
and it falls apart like dust balls.
I open the dress
and I see a child bent on a toilet
seat.
I crouch there, sitting dumbly
pushing the enemas out like ice
cream,
letting the whole brown world
turn into sweets.
Anne,
who are you?
Merely a kid keeping alive.
Baby Picture
• Her poem is a
representation of the
depression and self doubt
as well as torment of her
existence that she has
experienced in her own life.
• The last line of her poem is
possibly the most powerful
in the entire work. It shows
her raw, intense confusion
about who she is and how
she is possibly going to
make it in what she most
likely considered the cruel
game of life
Baby Picture
Sources
• http://typesofpoetry99.blogspot.com/2009/
03/american-confessional-poetrymovement.html