Confessional poetry, also called "Confessionalism," is a type of poetry that began in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is sometimes called a form of Postmodernism. This style of poetry focuses on personal experiences, thoughts, and difficult times, including topics that were once considered too private or sensitive, such as mental illness, sexuality, and suicide. These themes are often connected to larger issues in society.

Literary critics say that confessional poets wrote about their own lives as a way to respond to the difficult events of the 20th century, such as the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the dangers of nuclear weapons. These events made it hard for people to feel safe or understand the world around them. Confessional poets also challenged the idea that family life in the 1950s was always happy and perfect by sharing stories about unhappiness in their own homes.

The "confessional poetry" movement was linked to poets who changed American poetry in the 1950s and 1960s. These poets include Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, and W. D. Snodgrass.

Life Studiesand the emergence of Confessionalism

In 1959, M. L. Rosenthal first used the term "confessional" in a review of Robert Lowell's book Life Studies, which he called "Poetry as Confession." Rosenthal explained that confessional poetry differs from other types of poetry because it shares personal details that go "beyond usual limits of shyness or embarrassment." He noted that earlier examples of confessional writing often used a "mask" to hide the poet's real identity. However, Lowell removed this mask. His poems clearly show his own experiences, and it is hard not to see Life Studies as a collection of personal stories that are difficult to share. In a review of the book in The Kenyon Review, John Thompson wrote, "These poems no longer worry about what is proper. They have expanded the range of what poetry can include."

Before Life Studies was published, there were earlier examples of confessional writing. Delmore Schwartz's long poem Genesis was published in 1943. John Berryman also wrote a series of sonnets in 1947 about an affair he had with a woman named Chris while married to his first wife, Eileen. However, Berryman did not publish these sonnets, titled Berryman's Sonnets, until 1967, after he divorced Eileen. Similarly, Kenward Snodgrass's poem Heart's Needle, which describes the effects of his divorce, was written before Life Studies.

Despite earlier examples, Life Studies was the first book in the confessional style to gain widespread attention and was the first to be labeled "confessional." The poems in the final section of Life Studies are especially notable because they describe Lowell's struggles with mental illness and his time in a mental hospital in Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath mentioned in an interview that Lowell's poems about his mental health experiences inspired her. She said, "I was very excited by what I feel is a new breakthrough in poetry, like Robert Lowell's Life Studies. These poems explore serious, personal, emotional topics that were once considered taboo." However, A. Alvarez thought some poems in Life Studies focused too much on psychoanalysis instead of poetry, while Michael Hofmann believed Lowell's writing was less strong because of the emphasis on "confessionalism."

In a poetry class at Boston University in the late 1950s, Lowell taught many talented poets. In 1955, Lowell asked to join the university partly because his psychiatrist suggested he create a routine to help manage his bipolar disorder. Lowell's class included poets such as Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. Sexton joined in 1958, and working with Lowell helped her develop her poetic style. Sylvia Plath also joined Lowell's class in 1958. After reading the personal themes in Lowell's and Sexton's poems, Plath began writing about similar topics in her own work.

Further developments

Other important works from the American "confessional" style of poetry include Plath's Ariel, Berryman's The Dream Songs, and Sexton's To Bedlam and Part Way Back. However, Berryman strongly disagreed with the term "confessional," saying, "The word doesn't mean anything. I understand the confessional to be a place where you go and talk with a priest. I personally haven't been to confession since I was twelve years old." Another important, though somewhat in-between, writer was Adrienne Rich. In the 1980s, Sharon Olds became one of the most well-known poets who openly wrote about difficult or unusual topics related to sex, continuing the style started by Ginsberg.

Some modern poets create many different types of work that mix the confessional style with other ideas and themes. This blending of the confessional style with other writing methods is called "Poeclectics." In this approach, confessional writing becomes just one part of a larger, more varied way of writing that uses many different styles, subjects, voices, and forms.

Influence

In the 1970s and 1980s, many poets and writers, such as Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, and Franz Wright, were greatly inspired by confessional poetry. This style of poetry often includes themes that talk about personal experiences that are usually not discussed, such as thoughts about the mind and self, and stories about painful experiences from childhood and adulthood.

In an essay published in 1985, poet Stanley Kunitz wrote that Robert Lowell's Life Studies was "one of the most important poetry books since T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land."

Artists such as Peter Gabriel, Morrissey, and Madonna have said that Anne Sexton's work had a big impact on their music and art.

Criticism

In a 1977 interview with The Paris Review, Richard Wilbur said he did not like confessional poetry. He explained that one role of poetry is to help people deal with painful experiences by being honest and direct. Even the happiest poets must face pain, but they should not focus too much on their own problems. Robert Bly, a poet who wrote deep image poetry, also criticized confessional poetry in a similar way.

Some critics have noticed that many confessional poets wanted to become famous. During the 1950s, when popular culture grew, confessional poetry gave readers a look into the writers' personal struggles. Because confessional poets got a lot of public attention, some critics see the movement as a form of celebrity culture.

A group of poets called language poets started as a response to confessional poetry. They looked to the work of modernist poets like Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky. However, language poetry is also considered part of postmodernism in American poetry.

The most controversial response to confessional poetry is New Formalism, which supports using rhymes, rhythm, and storytelling in poetry. New Formalism started in the 1970s and 1980s when younger poets from the Baby Boom generation opposed the popularity of free verse and confessional poetry. In 1981, New Formalist poet R. S. Gwynn wrote The Narcissiad, which critic Robert McPhillips called "a Popean mock epic that criticizes modern poets."