The unmasking of self in the poetry of Robert Lowell Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton

Abstract

In an age of phenomenal technological boom and rampant communication network, the lives of individuals have been exposed as never before. In an effervescent and evolving society, such as this, where change is the only constant and where the Darwinian law of the survival of the fittest is the call of the day, the hapless individual is torn apart by innumerable challenges. There is a constant effort to establish one s identity- the I looms large. The Postmodern era, during the 1950 s and 1960 s, thus gave rise to the Poetry of the Personal or Confessional Poetry . Penned by a host of young poets, such as Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, it is essentially autobiographical and subjective in characteristics and many a times cathartic and therapeutic in intent. To the poets of that time, whose primary motive was to liberate the agonized self from the shackles of a society defined by restrictions and boundaries, the confessional mode was a convenient technique to reveal oneself and allow the unconscious to express itself. Removing the mask that has so long veiled the poetic presence and exposing the true self without any constrictions has been the sole motive of these poets. This thesis aims at exploring some important aspects of Confessional Poetry; analyze how it evolved in the hands of these three promising American poets and how far they were able to establish their identity without relegating it to mere solipsism. Key words: hapless, identity, restrictions, cathartic, confessional. solipsism newline