Category

Confessional

Vividly self-revelatory verse associated with a number of American poets writing in the 1950s and 1960s.

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    Confessional poetry

    Vividly self-revelatory verse associated with a number of American poets writing in the 1950s and 1960s, including Robert Lowell, W.D. Snodgrass, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and John Berryman. The term was first used by M.L. Rosenthal in a 1959 review of Life Studies, the collection in which Robert Lowell revealed his struggles with mental illness and a troubled marriage. Read an interview with Snodgrass in which he addresses his work and the work of others associated with confessionalism. Browse more poets who wrote confessional poems.

  • Author

    Robert Lowell

    Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard University and Kenyon College. He is best known for his volume Life Studies (1959), but his true greatness …
  • Author

    Ted Hughes

    Ted Hughes, one of the giants of twentieth-century British poetry, was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire. After serving in the Royal Air Force, Hughes attended Cambridge, where he studied archeology and anthropology…
  • Author

    John Berryman

    A scholar and professor as well as a poet, John Berryman is best-known for The Dream Songs (1969), an intensely personal sequence of 385 poems which brought him the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. …
  • Author

    Sylvia Plath

    Sylvia Plath was one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century. By the time she took her life at the age of 30, Plath already had a following in the literary community. In the ensuing years…
  • Author

    W. D. Snodgrass

    William DeWitt (W.D.) Snodgrass was born in Pennsylvania, and after serving as a typist in the US Navy in World War II, earned a BA and MA at the University of Iowa. At Iowa he studied under poet Robert Lowell…
  • Author

    Anne Sexton

    Anne Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts and raised in Weston, Massachusetts. One of the most popular poets of mid-20th century America, Sexton’s impressive body of work continues to be widely read and…
  • Author

    Frederick Seidel

    Frederick Seidel has been called “the poet the 20th century deserved” and lauded as one of “the best poets writing today”; he has also been accused of writing “sinister” and “disturbing” poetry. Ange Mlinko…
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