Sylvia Plath is one of the most famous confessional poets of the 20th century. Plath’s poems are known for being personal, emotional, and raw about her feelings and struggles. Poems like Morning Song, Daddy, and Lady Lazarus are just a few examples of her writing where she expresses her personal thoughts and experiences about motherhood, depression, and even death. Sylvia Plath drew inspiration from her own life by crafting poetry that is both powerful and intimate.
In the poem “Morning Song”, Plath describes the experience of becoming a mother, a transformation that feels both loving and uncertain for her. Instead of writing about motherhood as this joyful, amazing experience, she talks about her doubts and confusion. “I’m no more your mother / Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind’s hand. /(Plath lines 7-9). This is confessional because Plath is being honest with her feelings that many other mothers may also be feeling, but are too afraid to say out loud.
Further into the Poem, Plath continues to describe her inner disconnection and dissociation. “All night your moth-breath / Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen: / A far sea moves in my ear.” / (Plath lines 10-12). This tells me that the baby feels distant figuratively, like an echoing sound rather than being close. Having this honesty about feeling far away and out of touch with your baby is powerful because it contradicts the happy image of motherhood that people expect. Plath turned her private thoughts and feelings into poetry, which is a sign of confessionalism.
In the second poem, “Daddy”, Plath writes about her grief and anger towards her father. She starts off the poem saying “You do not do, you do not do / Anymore, black shoe / In which I have lived like a foot / For thirty years, poor and white, / Barely daring to breathe or Achoo / (Plath lines 1-5). This tells me that Plath is addressing her father and letting him know she felt trapped under his memory for a long time, even after he passed away. Plath is writing about her personal hidden pain, which shows confessionalism.
Further in the poem, Plath describes her father in appalling ways and talks about how she was a victim of him. “Every woman adores a Fascist, / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you.” / (Plath lines 52-54) This is her describing him as a cruel person and talking about her rage towards him. She also says, “Daddy, I have to kill you,” (Plath line 6) meaning she has to let go of his memory in order to move on, because it was consuming her.
In the final poem, Lady Lazarus, Plath openly speaks about her multiple suicide attempts. The poem opens with her confession, “I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it,” which tells you right off the bat about her repeated struggles with mental health and death and how she just “manages” these feelings. Instead, it sounds like death and survival have become a routine for her.
Later in the poem, Plath uses a cat to explain her survival from suicide. “I am only thirty. / And like the cat, I have nine times to die. / This is Number Three. / (Plath lines 20-22) The cat metaphor means she has many chances left, even though she has already tried multiple times. She makes it clear that these feelings started when she was young and has had a hard time getting them to disappear. This poem shows confessionalism because instead of hiding these feelings and keeping them private, she tells the reader about what she has been through and how she has tried to overcome the thoughts of suicide, which is a really tough subject to talk about, but for her, these feelings never truly go away.
Sylvia Plath’s life directly influenced her confessional poetry. She lost her father at 8 years old, which we saw that grief appear in her poem “Daddy”. She battled severe depression, and attempted suicide multiple times and was hospitalized because of it to try to get her help. This directly relates to her poem “Lady Lazarus”. I also found out that she had two children, and she had a troubled marriage with a man named Ted Hughes, who she caught having an affair with another woman. By turning these private struggles, thoughts, and emotions into writing, she was able to write beautiful confessional poetry.
Works Cited:
Ostberg, Rene. “Sylvia Plath | Biography, Poems, Books, & Facts.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Sylvia-Plath.
Plath, Sylvia. “Lady Lazarus.” Poetry Foundation, 1965, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus.
Poetry Foundation. “An Introduction to Confessional Poetry.” Poetry Foundation, 26 Mar. 2020, www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/151109/an-introduction-to-confessional-poetry.
Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy.” Poetry Foundation, 1965, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48999/daddy-56d22aafa45b2.
Poetry Foundation. “Morning Song by Sylvia Plath.” Poetry Foundation, 1961, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49008/morning-song-56d22ab4a0cee.