The history of confessional poetry has roots within religious confessional customs as early as Saint Augustine, evidence woven into Whitman’s use of “I,” and inspiration through Freudian psychotherapy (Nelson).
The church’s confessional and confessional poetry are uniquely intertwined as both structures are designed to “give relief to the morally isolated and disturbed” through use of their audience, be it Priest or reader (Phillips 5). In both the rolls, Priest and reader, an intimate connection is generated through the expression of turbulent experiences or emotions “with no second party between them” so that their “deeds” no longer make them “estrange[ed] –from themselves or others” (Philips 5).
Freud’s revolution in psychotherapy provided inspiration through the reflection and psychoanalysis of grievances with; revenge against adulterers, romantic love from a child towards a parent, the phallic, and other often sexually taboo themes (Aird; Perloff). The trend with self discovery within psychology acknowledged previously private conversations and generated a platform for recognition and discussion. The process of self discovery
sometimes happened through the use of writing, often in confessional terms, which would ultimately help to encourage and shape the expression of self-revelation and the process of understanding one’s own psyche in terms of its affliction to eventually achieve mental relief (Nelson; Nervaux). The use of writing as a form of therapy, and the trending topic of Freud’s psychoanalysis at the time, helped to increase attention and further exploration of the confessional genre.
Lastly, in 1855 Whitman inspired later confessional poets as he uncovers the “naked[ness]” that can be come from using an intimate “I.” This can be seen through his works in “old ballads”, like the Prelude, where “Whitman assumed for himself “only what all others could have on their own terms assume”” (Phillips 4). In other words, Whitman seems to speak for and as himself within his poetry, not “hiding behind the mask” of a name, or narrator (Phillips 4). The revolution of his work being, that his written “I” seemed to represent himself. This aspect is a critical and frequent feature of contemporary confessional poetry.
also see: Themes in Confessional Poetry –>
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References:
Aird, Eileen M. Sylvia Plath: Her Life and Work. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. Print.
Nelson, Deborah. “Confessional Poetry”, The Cambridge Companion to American Poetry since 1945. 1st ed. Cambridge: 2013. 31-46. Cambridge Companions Online. Web. 13 November 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139032674.004
De Nervaux, Laure. “The Freudian Muse: Psychoanalysis and the Problem of Self-Revelation in Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and “Medusa”.” E-rea. N.p., 15 June 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://erea.revues.org/186>.
Perloff, Marjorie. Poetic License: Essays on Modernist and Postmodernist Lyric. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1990. Print.
Phillips, Robert S. The Confessional Poets. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1973. Print.
Confessional Poetry 