Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman have that such gift, and are nothing short of illustrious. Dickinson and Whitman have revolutionized poetry eternally. Emily Dickinson’s writing shows her introverted side, she found comfort in being reclusive. Her writing clearly depicts that certain works of her will not be meant for everyone, rather
D. Snodgrass. Confessional poetry is a division of contemporary poetry. Vividly self-revelatory verses, confessional poetry are expressions of personality and never an escape from it. Confessional poetry thus translates autobiographical facts as there is overtone of struggle, improvisation and resistance. Many Indian women poets too have written their poetry in confessional mode revealing their personal experiences of their shattered life.
But the poet claims she is not noble and not complex. She is definitely not ashamed about this, because of the fact that her sexuality was a great inspiration for her poetry. This is also a reason why she addresses her sonnet to ‘almighty Sex’. Brittin (1982) holds the view that ‘I too beneath your moon, almighty Sex’ is “a defiant sonnet asserting that her work is absolutely sincere, ‘wrought from what I had to build with,’ coming out of her far from perfect self and including lust ‘and nights not spent alone’.” To conclude, it is possible to state that in ‘I too beneath your moon, almighty Sex’ Edna St. Vincent Millay expresses her sense of pride about her poetry
Throughout her poetry she remains honest, painting an unflattering self-portrait through lyrical beauty, allowing us to empathize with her. One of the key ideas in Bishop’s poetry is a moment of epiphany, this is always supplemented with excellent, stark language. Through Bishop’s poetry it is evident that her childhood experiences had a very negative impact on her life. She portrays these negative experiences through ingenious, immaculate writing. My personal favourite is ‘Sestina’, her superb technical ability is shown in this poem.
She committed suicide after being haunted by feelings of “ill[ness], isolat[ion], and … despair” (VanSpanckeren 83) and after having an ongoing struggle with the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ She was an eminent female poet of the 1960s whose poems mirrored the “personal” and “proto-feminist cry of anguish” (VanSpanckeren 83). Nassia Linardou claims that Sexton was considered “the high priestess” and “the Mother” (89) of confessional poetry. Her acclaimed talent emanated from her boldness to evoke newly-tackled issues such as mother-daughter relationship, suicide and sexuality. As a female poet, Sexton rebuilt her fragmented identity through her poems. Her poetry thrived on issues of the female incessant struggle, and her poems were “encoded with images of domesticity and motherhood – images which gender [her] poetry – and [her] employment of the first person pronoun” in her poetry (Crosbie 59).
Her poetry takes a common incident or ordinary person and given a structure that is not a plain recitation of facts, poems that “skillfully combine biography and history” (325). She has stated in an interview with M. Wynn Thomas in 1995, her works have been influenced by Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright, and James Wright. Dove is also asked often about her influences other than writers and repeats that she is “obsessed with” what she calls the “underside of history”. In the interview with M. Wynn Thomas, Dove said that the “underside of history” is the “dramas of ordinary people - the quiet courage of their actions, all which buoy up the big events” (The Swansea Review). Dove believes “putting these private events” alongside historical events makes the personal and historical equally important.
The blending of witty and subtle remarks with emotion and feeling exposes John Donne’s scholasticism as a Metaphysical poets and brings the whole of experience into his poetry in which profound interest of experience can be analyzed to meet up the psychological curiosity of writing love and religious poetry. Actually Metaphysical poets wanted to do something unique that’s why they separated themselves from Spenser and Elizabethans poets. In his poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, Donne deals with conjugal love. While consoling his wife, the speaker argues that the parting can’t harm their love because their love is the love of souls. Similarly “Batter my Heart” is full of paradoxical statements.
The tone of the poem refers to the attitude of the poet as well as the poet’s emotional colouring of the poem. The tone of this poem is personal as she refers to “I” and “You” on a constant basis throughout the poem. She is also questioning the reader by the use of the words “you” which contributes to the personal tone of the poem. The overall tone of the poem is bitter, angry as well as self-confident. As you read the title of the poem and the repetition of the words “I rise” you realize that the poem’s tone is one of triumph and of winning.
The collective body of Sylvia Plath 's poetry demonstrates definitively her mastery of her craft. Plath has been criticized for her overtly autobiographical work and her suicidal pessimism, however, close study reveals that her poetry transcends categorization and has a voice uniquely her own. As Katha Pollit concluded in a 1982 Nation review, "by the time she came to write her last seventy or eighty poems, there was no other voice like hers on earth" (Wagner 1). In works such as "Lady Lazarus," "Daddy," and "Morning Song," Plath relates her own painfully experiences in the form of dramatic monologues using a persona who eventually triumphs over adversity by regaining the self that had been lost before the struggle of the poem. According to Plath, the narrator of "Lady Lazarus" has "the great and terrible gift of being reborn .
Confessional mode of writing helps a female poet in the expression of her suppressed self and to regain her lost identity. As a confessional poet, Das exposes herself in some way or other in almost every poem that is why her poems often appear autobiographical. In the words of N V Raveendran, “The poetic experience in general is rooted in the individual poet’s personal background as well as the regional and social factors.”(Raveendran 2000 p. 28) The Aim of this research paper is to study the Confessional moods in the poetry Kamala Das. Keywords: Betrayal, Confessional, Love, Pain, Suffering. Confessional poetry representing the poets own circumstances experience and feelings, Kamala Das extends her poetry as a challenge against the