Confessional Poets

Confessional Poetry is defined as "Poetry of the personal or I." The movement took place in the 1950's an the 1960's but had been experimented with by past poets. The movement is primarily defined by the content that its poets chose to write about.

Characterisitcs: 

• Careful use of Prosody 
• Structured 
• Sonnet sequences
• More bold, and truthful then traditional poetry 

Major Themes: 

• Mental illness
• sexuality 
• despondance 
• Depression
• Acholism 

Major Poets: 

• Theodore Roethke 
• Robert Lowell 
• W.D. Snodgrass
• Anne Sexton
• Slyvia Plath 

Poem: 
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cryTook its place among the elements. Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.In a drafty museum, your nakednessShadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls. I'm no more your motherThan the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slowEffacement at the wind's hand. All night your moth-breathFlickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:A far sea moves in my ear. One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floralIn my Victorian nightgown.Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you tryYour handful of notes;The clear vowels rise like balloons.