ConfessionalismJeanette Cibelli

What is Confessionalism?

American poetry movement of the 1950’s & 1960’so Typically Northern US

Explores personal struggles, fears, or experiences candidlyo School of the “I”; autobiographicalo Self-revelation; sometimes difficult for people

to writeo Connection forged between reader & poeto Poetry used as an outlet

Ranges structurally depending on the poet Exert influence on contemporary poets

Historical Context

Early 1950’s—post WWII Cold War 1953—end of Korean War 1960’s—2nd wave of

feminism/women’s movement 1962—Cuban Missile Crisis 1950’s-1970’s—Vietnam War

Evolution of Confessionalism

Similar poetry presented itself centuries before in the works of Propertius & Petrarch

During the 20th century, poetry encompassed public as well as private issues.o However, presentation is more indicative of

confessionalism than content. The term “confessionalist” was first used by

M. L. Rosenthal in his 1959 review of Lowell’s poetry collection Life Studies.

Notable Poets

Robert Lowell & W. D. Snodgrasso First confessionalist poets

Anne Sexton Sylvia Plath John Berryman Allen Ginsberg

Robert Lowell

His 1959 collection of poems Life Studies prompted the start of the movement (along with Snodgrass’s Heart’s Needle)o Influenced many other

poets Struggled with mental

illness, marriage, war, & depression

Poems not structured rigidly

Sylvia Plath

Poet from a young age Student of Lowell with Sexton Poems characterized by the

combination of “violent or disturbed imagery & playful use of alliteration and rhyme” (poets.org)

Struggled with her father’s early death, depression, marriage, divorce

Committed suicide in 1963 Pulitzer Prize winner

Anne Sexton

Struggled with family, school, modeling, marriage, postpartum depression, mental breakdowns

Began writing after being admitted to a mental hospital in 1954o attended Lowell’s workshop with Plath

Poems focus on feminist ideas & the body 1966 collection Live or Die is her

fictionalized journey to mental recovery Pulitzer Prize winner Committed suicide in 1974

o Wrote the poem “Sylvia’s Death” to Plath out of jealousy

Historical Context Comparison

Global Early 1950’s—post

WWII Cold War 1953—end of Korean

War 1960’s—2nd wave of

feminism/women’s movement

1962—Cuban Missile Crisis

1950’s-1970’s—Vietnam War

Confessionalism 1959—Lowell’s Life

Studies 1959—Snodgrass’s

Heart’s Needle 1962—Plath’s Colossus 1963—Plath’s suicide 1966—Sexton’s Live or

Die 1974—Sexton’s suicide 1977—Lowell’s death 2009—Snodgrass’s death

I have gone out, a possessed witch,

haunting the black air, braver at night;

dreaming evil, I have done my hitch

over the plain houses, light by light:

lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.

A woman like that is not a woman, quite.

I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,

filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,

closets, silks, innumerable goods;

fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:

whining, rearranging the disaligned.

A woman like that is misunderstood.

I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

learning the last bright routes, survivor

where your flames still bite my thigh

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

I have been her kind.

“Her Kind”Anne Sexton

From To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960)