Muhammad Ayazm.phill English literaturethe university of lahore, sargodha campus

Confession in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath#/media/File:Sylvia_plath.jpg

What is Confessional Poetry?

Confessional poetry uses the “I.” It deals with subjects not often written about publicly: death, trauma, depression.

It is a genre of poetry first identified in the decades immediately following the Second World War. It was initiated with the publication of Robert Lowell's Life Studies (1959).

Other poets whose work typifies this style include Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, and Anne Sexton. 

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Sylvia-Plath-and-the-poetry-of-confession-5412

Traits of Plath’s Confessional PoetryIntimate Subject Matter focuses on subject matter once considered taboo.First-Person Narration a first-person point of view, allowing the reader to

delve closely into the thoughts and feelings of Plath.Autobiographical by Design the poet and the speaker are one in the same and

interchangeable.Lyrical Craftsmanshippaid careful attention to the use of rhythm and

intonation in their poems. http://classroom.synonym.com/characteristics-confessional-poetry-20492.html

Plath on confessional poetry"I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathize with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife, or whatever it is. I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrifying, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and intelligent mind."

http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/uroff.html

Examples of Plath’s confessional poetry

Daddy, I have had to kill you.You died before I had time--Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,Ghastly statue with one gray toeBig as a Frisco seal- from “Daddy”

“I’m no more your mother,Than the cloud that distils a mirror...”

Morning Song

“I am silver and exact”“I am not cruel only truthful”

Mirror

“I have to live with it overnight”“I can’t keep away from it”“It is dark, dark”“Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!”

The Arrival of the Bee Box

“If I could bleed, or sleep!”

Poppies in July

A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF PLATH’S POEMS

http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/uroff.html

"Miss Drake Proceeds to Supper"

is an early poem but it reveals the way in which Plath controlled her own terrifying experiences in her poetry.

 reveals Plath's terrifying self-knowledge.

"Tulips"

the body of the poem demonstrates the way in which the mind may intensify its pain by objectifying itself.

is not a cheerful poem, but it does move from cold to warmth, from numbness to love, from empty whiteness to vivid redness, a process manipulated by the associative imagination.

"The Tour,"

Plath presents a damning portrait of the too inventive mind that exults in self-laceration.

 charged with a hysterical energy that she deploys finally against herself.

holds off rather than exploring her situation.

"Daddy"does call upon specific incidents in Plath's

biography, her suicide attempts and her father's death.

a demonstration of the mind confronting its own suffering and trying to control that by which it feels controlled.

the frantic pitch of the language and the swift switches of images do not confirm any self-understanding.

The pace of the poem reveals its speaker as one driven by a hysterical need for complete control.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH