Essay on The Dark Life and Confessional Poetry of Sylvia...

By the mid twentieth century, the dominance of post-modernist literature began to decline with the emergence of contemporary poets, who brought with them a new type of perspective within their poetry. These poets—especially those who wrote confessional poetry—established their poetry in a single, unified voice that accentuated intimate human topics such as death, sexuality, and family. An important contributor to contemporary and confessional poetry was Sylvia Plath, who employed personal aspects of her life into her style of confessional poetry. Plath suffered from a deep depression that influenced her to often write in a dark, melancholy style. This depression included two suicide attempts of which she wrote before succeeding in suicide†¦show more content†¦This era included several different movements, including imagism, projectivism, beat poetry, and largely, confessional poetry. These different types of poetry, especially confessional poetry, still have a wide influence on American Literature today. If any one group of poets is known to receive the widest amount of praise from academics and critics, it is the group known as confessional poets. Confessional poetry is known to reveal private, intimate experiences with the audience; it is thought of as a way of creating character so as to inform the trauma of the past with understanding and, sometimes, compassion (Hamilton 97). This poetry destroyed the wall between the public and private world, removing with it the taboo label from personal life. It possesses with it a keen interest in the human condition. Though the idea of confessional poetry is not innovative, the way in which contemporary poets employed the idea was. Though confessional poetry is impersonal, that is, objective rather than subjective, many poems were considered the spiritual autobiography of a poet (Malkoff 27). Because their poetry employed very deep, personal ideas, illness and stress were often a part of the live s of confessional poets. Many critics and psychiatrists questioned whether the illness and stress was a price willingly paid for ones art (Malkoff 29) by these poets. These poets included Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, and SylviaShow MoreRelatedLife, Poetry, And Death1467 Words   |  6 PagesLife, Poetry, and Death Death, madness, and love are the main points of impulse in Sylvia Plath’s life, a habit that can be described as part of the unconscious. According to psychological studies, the effects of trauma and experience on an author can manifest itself in their writing (Caruth). For instance, we learned that the suffering of Sylvia Plath her whole life due to depression, the attempted of suicide, and the death of her father. Those traumatic experiences influenced the writing and interpretationRead MoreSylvia Plaths Lady Lazarus1289 Words   |  6 PagesSylvia Plath, author of â€Å"Lady Lazarus†, is â€Å"widely considered one of the most emotionally evocative and compelling American poets of the postwar period† (â€Å"Plath, Sylvia: Introduction†). Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts and her father died when she was eight. Plath attended Smith College and due to overwhelming conditions, she lapsed into a severe depression and overdosed on sleeping pills. Afte r receiving psychiatric care, Plath enrolled in Newnham College where she met and married EnglishRead MoreSylvia Plath is an American Writer who Writes Confessional Poems about her Life1117 Words   |  4 PagesSylvia Plath is an American writer, commonly known for her poetry works. Her poetry can be categorized as â€Å"confessional poetry†, which are poems about the poet’s personal life. Her two most famous published collections of poems are The Colossus and Other Poemsand Ariel, but it was not until after Plath’s death that The Bell Jarwas published. The Bell Jar is considered a more personal and semi-autobiographical novel. Throughout Sylvia Plath’s lifetime, she suffered mentally since she was a littleRead MoreAnalysis Of The Starrry Night Painting By Vincent Van Gogh1373 Words   |  6 Pagesuse them because, in the compilation, they provide a link from the art to the psychological, mental health, and symbolic aspects of Van Gogh’s works. Locating references to support Sylvia Plath’s poem were a bit more challenging, however, I was able to identify four for this evaluation. The first Plath reference, Sylvia Plaths Narrative Strategies is from the Iowa Review published in 1982 by Margaret Dickie. 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Throughout her struggles, Plath wrote, sometimes writing as much as 10 drafts a day. Despite welcoming into the world two children, whom she loved dearly, Plath still felt unfulfilled by her duties as a housewife. As she wroteRead MoreSylvia Plath was American short-story writer, poet and novelist that was born on October 27, 1932900 Words   |  4 PagesSylvia Plath was American short-story writer, poet and novelist that was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and died on February 11, 1963. Sylvia Plath is best known for, her books of poems, â€Å"The Colossus and Other Poems Collection† and the â€Å"Ariel Collection† of Poems.Plath’s poetry was known for its rhyme, alliteration and disturbing and violent imagery. Plath’s p oetry is considered part of the Confessional movement, which became very popular in the United States during the 1950sRead MoreOne Art By Sylvia Plath Critical Analysis1446 Words   |  6 PagesLazarus† by Sylvia Plath, the poets write to conceptualize and understand their losses, ultimately applying radically opposing solutions to the same emotional struggle. Elizabeth Bishop was a high-caliber poet known for her excellent use of form and technical genius. Suffering tragedy at a young age when â€Å"her father died, and shortly thereafter, her mother was committed to a mental asylum,† it is somewhat surprising that the majority of Bishop’s poetry is detached from her personal life, instead focusingRead MoreSylvia Plath s Poetry And Her Sanity1075 Words   |  5 PagesSylvia Plath was an American Poet who was renowned for poetry mostly in the United States. She, however lived a difficult and depressing life which led to a few futile suicide attempts, but ultimately led to a successful suicide attempt leaving her children to live on without a mother. This end result was due to a multitude of issues in her life from Sylvia’s sanity. She wasn’t the most stable child. Her marriage also played a role in her suicide. Her successes weren’t acclaimed until after her deathRead MoreThe Colossus and Daddy by Sylvi a Plath802 Words   |  3 Pages Sylvia Plath is one of the greatest poets of all time- the queen of confessional poetry. Her writing is thick with figurative language that cannot be interpreted only one way. Sylvia Plath herself was complicated, and she struggled with her own personal hardships up until the day she took her own life. Plath’s father passed when she was only eight, and she struggled with his absence not only though the rest of her childhood but also into adult hood. Many critics believe her famous poems, such