Yvonne Hopkins

Confessional Poetry renders personal experience as candidly as possible, even sharing confidences that may violate social conventions or propriety. Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1998.

Confessional Poets: a group of American poets who developed a lyric mode that, by virtue of its explicit themes and personal outpourings, became known as "confessional." …the movement’s origins reach as far back as Catullus or Sappho, but its more recent predecessors are the Romantic Poets, Wordsworth in particular. The tonal source for confessional poetry was the post-World War ll legacy of disenchantment and angst. The confessional poets tended to project this tone through self-effacing, sometimes guilt-ridden visions of themselves. Benet’s Readers‘ Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. 1987.

Related Genre: autobiography, lyric, memoir, romantic poetry, film, talk-shows.

Representational Genre: Narrator or Single Voice.

Narrative Genre: Romance, sometimes Tragedy.

Example: Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath.

Highlights: intense, bitter reflections on suicide attempts.

Additional examples: Confessions of St. Augustine; Rousseau’s Confessions; Romantic Poets; Confessional Poets: Robert Lowell, W. D. Snodgrass, Anne Sexton; Songwriters: James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Don Henley, Sarah McLachlan; Film: Girl Interrupted.

Questions: What purpose does confessional writing serve?

Does it create any negative aspects, and what might they be?