Robert Pinsky

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Robert Pinsky represents the Confessional movement in poetry because of his personal relation to his works in a matter of deep understanding of the self. Confessional poetry emerged in the 1950’s and 60’s and introduced a new realm of poetry in which the readers could better understand the author’s personal thoughts. “Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner,” (“Brief Guide”). They often describe psychological emotions through literary techniques that may be overlooked to the naked eye. Said poets did not simply spill their emotions unto the page, but they paid much attention to their prosody and articulated each stanza …show more content…

He was born into a Jewish Orthodox family with his father working as an optician. While his childhood may have seemed ordinary and calm, Pinsky revealed that his household was often “disorderly [and] unpredictable”. This chaotic environment may have contributed to his fascination with fragmentation, as displayed in works such as “Poem of Disconnected Parts”. Pinsky earned his first degree from Rutgers University and shortly transitioned to Stanford University, where he was granted a PhD in Psychology (“Robert Pinsky”). Launching his poetic career, Pinsky was inspired by the flow and excitement of jazz music and wanted to recreate the sensation it provided him in his own works for his readers to experience. In an interview with Bomb Magazine in 1999, Pinsky states, “Very often what I’m trying to do in my poems is achieve the kind of emotion and beauty I hear somebody like Dexter Gordon achieving,” (Sleigh). He wishes to have a similar effect on the readers as would the sweet symphony of jazz music. In his writings, Pinsky appears to have strung each word along into a perfect rhythmic melody that harmonizes with every syllable. This evidence is clear once one delves further into the constructions of his poems. In 1997, Robert Pinsky was granted the honor of becoming the Poet Laureate, a position he would hold until the year 2000. Additionally, he was given the title of “Consultant in

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