The Moose And Sylvia Plath

Confessional poetry brought about a new era in the contemporary arts where poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, and Sylvia Plath employed varying levels of this profound style to convey the deepness of personal feelings and experiences previously considered too taboo for public discussion. This style of poetry broke the barriers of standard society allowing for candidness concerning topics previously deemed too embarrassing and shameful to openly discuss such as drug abuse, sexual guilt, alcoholism, suicide and depression. This was a period of rebellion towards the repression imposed by the impersonal standards of society. The main characteristics that encompass this style of poetry include the use of intimate subject

At first glance, Bishop’s poems “The Fish” and “The Moose” lack the obvious characteristics as they are seemingly void of intimate subject matter and first person/autobiographical design. Bishop’s use of this technique is considered “observational confession” and provides thought-provoking insights into life while drawing heavily on the painful memories of her early childhood. Her use of landscape and animals parallel the impersonal and alienated nature of humanity that echo the turbulent life and struggle with alcoholism and loss she experienced, “He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely” (Bishop, 57). In comparison, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and “A Supermarket in California” are graphic examples of confessional style that impart strong evidence of this style through the use of the autobiographical experience, intimate subjects and lyrical workmanship. His explicit poems convey the autobiographical experiences as he writes of the generational rebellion against the conformity of the 1950’s defiantly revealing the acts he and his peers indulged in with drugs, bisexuality and bebop music. Ginsberg’s use of lyrical craftsmanship through repetitive verse and dark imagery boldly address intimate subjects of that time such as mental illness through reflections of darkness, alienation, and suicidal thoughts imparted by a spiritually deadened

In Robert Lowell’s “Skunk Hour” and “For the Union Dead” the intimate subject of depression is conveyed as the speaker mirrors Lowell’s own life having suffered from mental illness and requiring hospitalization. Lowell incorporates all four characteristics of confessional style to include first person narration, “I watched for love-cars. Lights turned down, they lay together hull to hull, where the graveyard shelves on the town… My mind’s not right (Lowell, 301). Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” clearly give evidence of this style as an autobiographical and first person narration of the troubling images and relations of a girl with her father, which mirror Plath’s own life. Her works dramatize her personal experiences and visibly express the darkness and pain of her life, sadly ending in suicide shortly after composing these two pieces, “Ash, ash- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there-“ (Plath, 624). Despite the different degrees of confessional intimacy among these four poets, the unity among them is in their great courage to challenge society’s norms providing readers an in depth look into the alienation of everyday life during that