Politics and Feminism in Confessional Poetry

In this paper, the topic of confessional poetry is investigated, particularly the works of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. The main aim of the present work is highlighting the differences between the confessional truths of each poet and identifying what role in the perception of the whole poem this truth plays. In order to reach that aim, several tasks were performed, and the first of them is defining confessional poetry, basing the definition on the existing research. Afterwards, poetry of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin was analyzed, regarding the features of confessional poetry. Specific attention was paid to creating political and feministic effects by female confessional poetesses. Then, after analyzing poetry of abovementioned authors, the conclusions about confessional truth present in their works were drawn, and the connection between confessional truth and effect of the poems, for instance, truth in Sexton’s poems and its feministic effects, was emphasized.