5. For my own work of art that relates to confessional poetry I chose to use a picture of my friend Kacie. I feel that this photo confesses Kacie’s true feeling towards nature and the environment. The photo is of Kacie sitting on a rock at Gloucester’s Stage Fort Park surrounded by both the ocean and woods. To confess is to reveal something which I believe is what this photo does. In confessional poetry poets reveal and express their feelings towards something personal in their lives. This photo reveals Kacie’s appreciation for the environment and also her love for her home Gloucester.

Piece of Art

4. Another piece of art that I feel relates to confessional poetry was a picture drawn by a three year old. When I asked her to draw a picture of herself I felt that it would reveal how she really saw herself. As confessional poetry does, this drawing reveals something about the little girl. The drawing is of herself in a dress, with legs but no arms. When asked why she was wearing a dress in the picture she responded with, “Because I’m a girl”. This revealed to me how “girly” she is and her perspective of what girls should wear. Before drawing her arms she decided to draw what she called her toys on the paper. This revealed to me that she cared more about her toys then including her own arms on her body in the picture. As confessional poems do this drawing revealed several things to me which I why I feel that this drawing relates to confessional poetry.

Description of Confessional Poetry

3. Confessional poetry first emerged in to the world in the late 1950’s. The main confessional poets were Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton. Confessional poetry is poetry where the poet gets personal and expresses his or her own feelings. Typically, the poet is expressing his or her feelings towards a death, betrayal, love, or any relationship. For example, in Anne Sexton’s, “Again and Again and Again” she describes a broken relationship with her lover and how the relationship has had a deep affect on her. For the most part confessional poems are easy to understand and comprehend. In Sylvia Plath’s, “The Other”, just from the title it is clear to the reader what the poem is going to be about. “The Other” is Sylvia Plath’s description of her cheating lover and the realization of a tainted love. From the confessional poems that I have read and the research that I have done on confessional poetry it is clear that this type of poetry transformed poetry to a more personal note.

"Bluebeard" Explication

“Bluebeard”
By: Sylvia Plath

I am sending back the key
That let me into bluebeard’s study;
Because he would make love to me
I am sending back the key;
In his eye’s darkroom I can see
My X-rayed heart. Dissected body:
I am sending back the key
That let me into bluebeard’s study.

“Bluebeard” by Sylvia Plath is a description of a man and a woman’s friendship where the man wants more then friendship. Plath describes how she ends her friendship with the man when she says, “I am sending back the key”. She says why she is sending back the key when she says, “Because he would make love to me”. Plath wanted a friendship from this man but the man wanted more. It appears that the man wanted more from the beginning of their friendship and that Plath has just come to the realization of what his intentions were. “In his eye’s darkroom I can see”, shows that he had his eye on something else for their relationship with one another. Also, when Plath states, “My X-rayed heart. Dissected body” shows the trauma that this relationship has caused. Perhaps she depended on this man a lot and truly cared about this friendship but then the man crossed the line in their relationship.

Reflection on Confessional Poetry

Confessional Poetry

Confessional poetry is the revealing of a personal matter or occurrence in a poets life. After reading several confessional poems by poets such as Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich I learned that confessional poems are all about a transformation and coming to the realization of something. While reading these poems it seemed as if the poets were sorting out their thoughts of a certain occurrence such as being betrayed by a loved one or death. For example, in “The Other” by Sylvia Plath she is betrayed by her lover and appears to be calling her lover out on his actions. Personally, I enjoyed reading the poems written by women poets because I felt I was able to relate to what they were saying more compared to the men’s poems. Also, in all of the poems the words seemed to flow and the diction that the poets used made it easy to understand what the poets were trying to say. The diction used in these poems made it so the poems did not have any hidden messages. Not only are the poems that I read similar because they were confessional poems but also in the fact that they all seemed to portray a sense of gloominess. For example, in Sharon Olds “High School Senior” she describes the emptiness it causes her to feel thinking of her daughter leaving home for college. Also in Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking” he appears to be questioning the world around him in a gloomy matter.

Poems and poets used

Sylvia Plath-“Resolve”, “Bluebeard”, “The Other”
Adrienne Rich-“In Those Years”
Sharon Olds- “High School Senior”
Anne Sexton- “Again and Again and Again” & “Anna Who Was Mad”
John Berryman- “I Don’t Know One Damned Butterfly From Another” & “All We Were Going Strong”
Theodore Roethke- “The Waking” & “What Is To Be Given”

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness
Author: Joseph Conrad

In Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness the main character Marlow’s observations of how others view him is as stem of one of the major themes throughout the novel, darkness. It becomes clear to the reader right from the beginning of the novel that Marlow is different compared to the other men on the ship. His differences stay with him as he continues on his journey as others continue to look at him in strange ways and Marlow stays very aware of what is going on. This constant obsession of how people view you is not uncommon for I struggle with it constantly.
At the beginning of the novel Marlow already struggles to fit in with his crew mates whom he tells the story of his journey to the Congo River. They show little respect to him and appear to judge him for his appearance and because Marlow comes off as an intelligent man. “His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence. No one took the trouble to grunt even; and presently he said, very slow.” This quote also shows how the narrator shows little respect for Marlow along with the other men on the boat. As Marlow continues his story he tells of his experience in the company office which he describes as a dark, negative atmosphere. Marlow observes and can also feel the people in the office staring at him. It also appears that people don’t know what to think of Marlow because why is this bright intelligent man traveling to the Congo River? The people around him don’t know that’s why they continue to look at him with these blank stares as Marlow received when he arrived in the Congo. Marlow’s observation of these stares comes after his description of the dark and desolate African shores.
Although Marlow is continuously judged and questioned he does some judging of his own. When he first arrives in the Congo he speaks of the black men working as the other white man had. This is hypocritical of Marlow in the fact that he is constantly being judged by people of his own race, and then follows in their footsteps by acting in the same manner towards the men working. For example, “They passed me within six inches without a glance with the complete deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.” This quote shows what Marlow thought of the men working and how he gave them the blank stare as he had received many times before. Marlow’s constant observation of people and how they view him is also something that I struggle with.
Although people are constantly telling one another to not care what people think of you, I find it hard not to. If someone gives me a weird look, I find myself wondering why that person just did that and it will often stay with me for the rest of the day. This leads me to believe that our society has become paranoid of others perceptions of us and we are constantly trying to better our appearances or lifestyles. In Marlow’s case, after being judged he finds himself judging others himself. The constant awkward stares and conversations that Marlow encountered were all followed or started by the description of a dark or gloomy place that Marlow was in. These events lead to Conrad’s theme of darkness throughout the novel.