Confessional Poetry and Why Its, like Basically Twitter<\/p>\n
By Lexie Rose<\/p>\n
Confessional poetry sounds like something you would read out of your sister\u2019s diary talking about how she and \u2018Steve\u2019 kissed for the first time Saturday night. However, that is not the case. In reality, confessional poetry is some dark s**t. Mostly because it explored topics that were \u2018taboo\u2019 back in the day, such as suicide and depression and explicit sex. Its like when someone writes something way too personal on twitter, and you hope their friends tell them to delete it. Its like a train wreck, you just can\u2019t seem to look away, no matter how much you want to.<\/p>\n
You may still be confused about what it is. So lets get into it. Confessional poetry is, \u201cPrivate experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner\u201d, (Poets.org ). My mind immediately takes me to Sylvia Plath. Oh Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia. Known for her eventual suicide and mental illness. Lets take a look at one of her most famous confessional poems to get a better grasp on what it is.<\/p>\n
In \u201cDaddy\u201d by good ole\u2019 Sylvia, its almost a window into her head. After reading it, you realize why she battled with mental illness. Her upbringing wasn\u2019t a fairytale. Throughout the poem, she refers to her father as the \u201cNazi\u201d with the \u201cAryan eye\u201d, and the \u201cNeat mustache\u201d, while she is \u201cthe jew\u201d, (Plath). This obviously refers to an oppressive type of relationship between her and her father. She also overtly hints that she doesn\u2019t know how to feel about his death, \u201cI thought of killing you\u201d. This is pretty dark stuff. It gets worse. She then hits the readers with a line that seems way too personal that it makes you uncomfortable, \u201cAt twenty I tried to die\/And get back, back, back to you. \/I thought even the bones would do. \/But they pulled me out of the sack,\/And they stuck me together with glue\u201d (Plath). This is almost the epitome of a good example of confessional poetry. Its something that is so personal to the poet that it makes you feel as though the poem wasn\u2019t meant for you to read.<\/p>\n
So, basically you see how this could have been a shock to a lot of people living in this time period (1940-1980). Confessional poetry took off in this era. Poetry during this time period was all about life and it was creative, but it wasn\u2019t about taboo topics such as these. This is the distinct element that sets them apart. Confessional poetry opened the door to poems being a type of release for those feelings. As time goes on, poets realized the power behind creativity and breaking form.<\/p>\n
Confessional poetry is supposed to be personal and make you feel something. Even if you don\u2019t personally connect to Plath\u2019s attempts at suicide or her relationship with her father, you recognize how painful it must\u2019ve been due to her beautifully relayed emotion through this type of poetry.<\/p>\n
Although poetry is considered to be \u2018dying\u2019, confessional poetry seems to be even more relevant today than it was back then. A certain book of poems called \u201cMilk and Honey\u201d by Rupi Kaur has become perhaps one of the most famous books of modern poetry. It\u2019s an autobiographical, chronological account of a young woman falling in love and having her heart broken. It showcases her depression and abuse, which is extremely personal. It universally renowned for being relatable to not only young women, but men and women of every age due to the realness of the human emotion portrayed and the connections the readers feel to the speaker.<\/p>\n
So basically, confessional poetry is just like twitter. Before twitter, peoples\u2019 personal lives just weren\u2019t discusses unless it was between close friends. Nowadays, I can log onto Twitter and see who\u2019s broken up, who\u2019s sleeping together, and if someone if feeling down in the dumps. Just as twitter changed the way we see the world, so did confessional poetry. It took taboo topics and make them normalized, which is good because in doing that, it also began the movement to normalizing discussing mental illness. Even today, mental illness is often delegitimized and not taken seriously. However, we are moving in the right steps to get a conversation going about how to prevent and treat it.<\/p>\n
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Works Cited<\/p>\n
” A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry .” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Jan. 2017.<\/p>\n
Plath, Sylvia, Kristen Osborne, “Sylvia Plath: Poems Confessional Poetry.” GradeSaver. N.p., 4 Jan. 2012. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Web. 01 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n
Plath , Sylvia. “Daddy by Sylvia Plath | Poetry Foundation.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Web. 01 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n
Snograss, W. D. “The Original Confessional Poet Tells All.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Web. 01 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n
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