The First Confessional Poets

Abstract

The present paper aims to present the beginnings of confessional poetry in literature and its evolution towards a new poetic mode that sets in its center the most intimate thoughts of the poet and claims them to pertain to his self and more importantly, he/she thrust them to the reader. Confessional poetry needed a long time to become the poetry of Plath or Lowell. It took a long way to take the shape we are familiar with now. From the Romantics to the poets of the ’60, the confessional tone in poetry has evolved towards the expression of the deepest feelings in the human soul. In the following lines, I introduce the confessional poets and the main themes they use in their poetry.