I fear Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Boy Died in My Alley,” written in 1975, could’ve been written yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. And I pray not tomorrow. Brooks’ poem aims to address the epidemic of African American boys dying at the hands of gun violence. The shooter is not included […]
Audre Lorde’s Anger and the Power it Holds
I spent a lot of time reading and rereading the Black Arts Movement poetry. I read them grouped by poet, grouped by gender, grouped loosely by age. I was trying to find ways that they were connected, things that were similar in many of the poems. To me, the thread that seemed to run through […]
Is Elm really this simple?
Something I most enjoy while reading Sylvia Plath’s poetry is the clear visual depictions of very abstract and intangible things such as grief, disassociation, and the overwhelming nature of thoughts. That being said, Plath does not write so clearly as to rid the work of all mystique or intrigue. “Elm” is a good example of […]
In a Field at Dawn
In the morning First light appears across the fields The first bird calls out, Heralding the arrival of a new day A decade prior Looking out across the vast ocean above the breaking waves. Foam gathers into shapes and places People I knew, and buildings long gone Another wave breaks, breaking brick and mortar […]
Restraint? How embarrassing!
Before taking this class, when I thought of contemporary American poetry, Sylvia Plath was one of, if not the first, poet to come to mind as embodying the genre. It has always saddened me that as celebrated as she is, she struggled so much in her life, and that comes through both in her poetry […]
A Hybrid Ars Poetica: Levertov’s Musicality Meets Nelson’s Interiority
A Hybrid Ars Poetica: Levertov’s Musicality Meets Nelson’s Interiority Nelson offers in her conclusion to “Confessional Poetry” a lens through which one should examine the poets who belong to the school: Withdrawing into privacy to conduct a conversation with oneself is one of the most powerful images of autonomy that we have. The freedom of […]
August 29th: A Poem for Suicide Prevention Month
*TW: suicide August 29th I turned Four today. Blew out the bright white light, again. This time it’s a celebration. I tried my best to blow it out once Four years ago. But I couldn’t finish it. I guess, I’m no good at it. Dad didn’t raise a quitter. But I never saw […]
Anne Sexton, “The Room of my Life”
Anne Sexton’s The Room of my Life Anne Sexton (1928-1974) was a profoundly accomplished poet who was categorized as a part of the Confessional Poets, who wrote raw revelations about topics thought to be private or unspeakable. Her poetry reflects perhaps, her tumultuous mental health, but certainly her perception of […]
An Aggressive Defense of the Confessionals
The definition of bias is a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared one with another, usually in a way considered unfair. This is a critical response, though not, perhaps, the critical response you expect. It is my opinion that the articles, namely Nelson’s “Confessional Poetry,” and Thurston’s “Psychotherapy and […]
Poet-Turned-Rockstar: Tyne Daile Sumner on Anne Sexton’s Band
In the article “Anne Sexton, Singer: ‘Her Kind’ and the Musical Impetus in Lyric Confessional Verse,” Tyne Daile Sumner illuminates the unfolding landscape of the postwar American lyric in popular and counterculture, inviting us to consider reading lyric confessional verse by emphasizing the kinetic and sonic implications of the lyric poem often inferred in readers’ […]