Where did the term 'confessional poetry' come from?
AA manifesto signed by Plath and Sexton in 1962
BM. L. Rosenthal's 1959 review of Robert Lowell's Life Studies
CT. S. Eliot's essay 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'
DA Beat Generation reading in San Francisco
Rosenthal's review, titled 'Poetry as Confession,' described Lowell's new openness about his family and breakdown. Eliot's 1919 essay argued nearly the opposite, that poetry is an escape from personality.
Question 2 True / False
Because confessional poems draw on the poet's life, the speaker is always identical to the poet and every detail is factual.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
The intimacy is an effect the poets built. They changed details, used personae and turned experience into myth. Reading the speaker as a constructed voice is still required.
Question 3 Multiple Choice
Which subject is most typical of confessional poetry?
AHeroic deeds of a nation's founders
BPastoral scenes of shepherds in an idealized countryside
CThe poet's own breakdown, marriage and family relationships
DAbstract philosophical arguments with no personal reference
Confessional poems center on private and often painful experience. Lowell's Life Studies, Snodgrass's Heart's Needle (about separation from his daughter) and Sexton's To Bedlam and Part Way Back (about psychiatric hospitalization) are examples.
Question 4 Short Answer
John Berryman's Dream Songs are often grouped with confessional poetry, yet they speak through a character named Henry. How does this complicate the idea of 'confession'?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Henry lets Berryman draw on his own life while keeping a mask between himself and the reader. The poems are personal in material but dramatic in method, so the 'confession' is staged rather than direct.
Berryman said Henry was not simply himself. The case shows that confessional poetry depends on persona and performance even when it uses real experience.