Confessional poetry is mainly characterized by its autobiographical subject matters. Mainly, the poetry address topics related to masturbation, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse or depression. Also, confessional poetry is mainly based on the works of 1950s and 1960s.
Daddy poem by Sylvia Plath is a perfect example of what confessional poetry is about. While this poem is about suicide, the autographical matter is related to depression. The poem was written in 1962 four months before the death of the author by suicide and one month after the separation from her husband. In the poem, Plath addresses the relationship she had with her late father. She uses very dark tones in the poem, including death and suicide, in addition to the Holocaust. She writes about the death of her father since she was eight years, a time when she tried to flee herself from a battle with him. Initially, she had a good relationship with her father which worsened with time. Before his death, he was the source of oppression to his daughter. There are chances that he used to rape her in silence and not allow her to reveal that to anyone. The father seems to have committed crimes against the speaker’s heart. For instance, she says Daddy is the one who “Bit my pretty red heart in two,”/“There’s a stake in your fat black heart.”
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Tragically, Plath still cherished the notion that masculine sexuality was the perfect emblem for power (“Every woman adores a Fascist”) and that she was doomed to sexual and social victimization (“I think I may well be a Jew”). It was after the death of her father that she feels she cannot be silent any more. She reveals the way she could not talk to her father. She says (The tongue stuck in my jaw”)
In Lady Lazarus, the speaker Plath uses extended metaphors of death and resurrection to express her personal suffering. She compares herself to the biblical Lazarus, a person raised from the dead by Jesus. However, her case is very different from that of Lazarus. For Lazarus, the resurrection was a joyous event and shows that resurrecting makes most people happy, Fr her, she subverts her expectation and says she wants to die. Therefore, the subject matter in the poem is suicide. The speaker, though not dead, uses the poem to demonstrate how unbearable her life was and perhaps explaining her suicidal thoughts. She describes her different accounts of suicidal attempts. She says death is a kind of calmness. At the beginning of the poem, she reveals that she is dead, which implies that she had tried to kill herself. Towards the end, he speaks like a mythological creature that has regenerative capabilities. And says “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.” Additionally, suicide is addressed in other areas like where she says, “Like the cat, I have nine lives”. She talks of having attempted suicide a new time. She says, “I have done it again”, meaning that she has attempted suicide a third time. She considers dying as an art, just like everything else.
With the example of Sylvia Plath’s poetry, it is clear that Confessional poetry has a great contribution to American poetry. For instance, the poetry has been used to reveal the sufferings that women undergo in silence at the hands of male power. On the other hand, Lady Lazarus contributes to American Poetry by showing how female artists struggle for autonomy in a patriarchal society.
