Vietnam War poetry Confessional poetics (II). Confessional poetry is most often written in free verse, first person point of view, though it does not have to be. The shared contract between reader and writer assumes that the poem is the authentic and truthful expression of the poet, and not, say, a made up person. Harmon and Holman's A Handbook To Literature calls it, simply, poetry that “features a public and sometimes painful display of private, personal matters.” This type of poetry draft can be the hardest to critique. Reviewers can get caught up in cheering on the poet rather than attending to craft; authors can respond to criticism of the poem as if to their feelings. A good objective distance helps. But what does it mean to write confessional poetry? Let us peek behind the curtain at the aesthetics behind the choice. First, let us consider what the poet is not doing. The poet is not taking a lyric, narrative, imagist, metaphysical, formal, prose-poem, language, or other approaches to poetic concerns. Just as a way to stretch, it would be a good idea to consider other types of containers for poetic ideas. May be writing from the point of view of a different character. May be using an apostrophe. May be trying extended metaphors. A monologue, or a narrative about other characters. Second, let us look at where the poet is placing himself in history. It is a fairly recent, American place. Prior to, say, the 1950s, the murky psychology of the individual was not considered a proper subject for poetry. Expressing the self was a way to express the universal. So when Shakespeare writes in Sonnet XVIII: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate The sonnet is less about Shakespeare and more about an idea of love + poetry = immortality; as the final couplet states: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. But times have been changing. Confessional poetry arose, not surprisingly, with the popularity of psychotherapy. Its jargon was entering popular culture, moving down from the wealthy classes to the hipsters and new suburban straights. It is as though everyone were suddenly discovering that their own unconscious contained universes of mysteries: locked up mysteries for which psychology offered the key. Therapy is all about uncovering the hidden, secret stuff that no one ever talks about openly, so culturally it was now becoming acceptable to write about it. So, poets became concerned with their own mysteries. And you, the confessional poet, are the heir to this approach that is often said to have started with Robert Lowell (1917-1977) in his 1959 book Life Studies. Dear Egyptian Mail readers,Your comments and/or contributions are welcome. We promise to publish whatever is deemed publishable at the end of each series of articles. [email protected]
