Summary:

     Contrasting with the beats' style of poetry arising in the mid-twentieth century, the "confessional" style of poetry became more well-known with poets such as Sylvia Plath (1936-63) and Robert Lowell (1917-77). Despite Lowell's influence in the confessional movement, this style of writing is most often associated with women. Although the more inward-focused confessional style varied from the beats' focus on society, both had somewhat of a countercultural theme at play within the poems. 

     Well-educated at Smith and Cambridge, Sylvia Plath took a more conventional path, marrying Ted Hughes (another well-known English poet) and having two children. A student of Lowell, he once described her as "maddeningly placid". Her poem "Daddy" illustrates her attempt to find out more about her father's background in Germany. Plath committed suicide in 1963, as did her son Nicholas later on.

     Robert Lowell was highly regarded in his own time and well known for his support of young writers. He ran a poetry workshop at Boston University, at which two of his most famous students were Plath and Anne Sexton.  Additionally, in 1959, Lowell published his book Life Stories, which he wrote after meeting with beat poet, Allen Ginsberg.  His poem, "For the Union Dead" reflects on the progress of modernity and the commodification of the living.

Word Count: 214

Passages:

From Plath's "Morning Song"

"One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

  In my Victorian nightgown.

  Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

  Whitens and swallows its dull stars [...]"  (13-16)

• It's debatable whether or not the mother loves the baby, but this poem frequently alludes to the responsibility and loss of freedom that comes with this baby's birth.  For example, the words "stumble" and "cow-heavy" in line 13 illustrate the oppression that comes with the role of motherhood.  The "Victorian nightgown" is also representative of this standard role of the woman, and the restrictions that Plath feels as a new mother. In addition, the image of the window square "swallow[ing] its dull stars" portrays the dawn as a dull ending to the night, and we see that the situation shown in the poem is not as hopefull and light-hearted as its title may suggest.

"I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow

Effacement at the wind's hand." (7-9)

• We get this metaphor of the baby as a measure of the mother's withering.  It also seems as if this mother had this baby for narcissistic reasons, as a way of seeing her own self in the child.  However, the phrase "I'm no more your mother" seems to imply that perhaps the mother does not feel the connection that one would expect her to feel towards her child.

From Plath's "Daddy"

"You do not do, you do not do

 Any more, black shoe

 In which I have lived like a foot 

 For thirty years, poor and white,

 Barely daring to breathe or Achoo."

• Through this poem Plath reveals the love/hate relationship she (and many other girls) had with her father. These are the opening lines to the poem, which would initially lead the reader to believe that the poem is actually about the black shoe.  However, the "black shoe," which constrains the foot, symbolizes the father, who we come to find was very oppressive and restraining, even abusive, toward his daughter.

Key Terms:

Beats- group of American writers during the the 1950's through the 1970's;  The group is composed of primarily male poets, and their works critique the dominant ideologies of the time, often involving drugs, madness, the body, and a performative nature. Beats we have read: Ginsberg.

Confessionals- a group of American writers whose writings, similar to the beats, are meant to shock polite society.  This group is more likely to be associated with women.  Their poems are often autobiographical and reveal intimate details of the poets' lives, addressing topics such as sex and mental illness in a way that is critical of 1950s American conformism.

Lecture Slides