CONFESSIONAL POETRY AND T.S.ELLIOT.
Often, the question for most beginning literary critiques when evaluating or analyzing a poem would be, Who is speaking in the poem. The answer to this question asked by most contemporary critics is what the literary community knows of as the voice or the I in the poem. Contrary to popular belief, the poet is not always equated with the I of the poem because many pieces of contemporary poetry now assume a different persona, and hence, it is unfair to assume that it is the poet speaking in the poem. The voice of the poem serves to situate the speaker in the poem as well as the reader. The I in the poem gives it its personality, as opposed to the more traditional and classical poetic forms that were formalistic in approach, and so, looked down upon poets who attempted to go against these conventions. It was not always this way until some time in the late 1950s and early 1960 when a poetry aesthetic movement known as confessionism emerged. This movement resulted in the development and the propagation of a contemporary poetic form now known as confessional poetry,
The main characteristic of confessional poetry is the use of the pronoun I. -Confessional poetry is the poetry of the personal or I. (Poets.org) Some scholars consider confessional poetry to be poetry that emerged as a response to the Elliotic school of extinction of personality (Rosenthal) confessional poetry directly and vociferously opposed the impersonality argued for by T. S. Eliot in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. (Yezzi) In terms of content, confessional poetry often tackles such subjects as depression, trauma, relationships and death. (Poets.org) However, this is not to say that the universality of the genre is compromised, because although confessional poetry tackles these subjects from the personal or intrinsic point of view, the approach to the significant human experience in question tends to embrace a genetic concept of the issue concerned. Therefore, although confessional poetry can be autobiographical at times (and it mostly is), the issues tackled or the subject matter of the poetry is something that all of society can identify with or something that man experiences in general. For instance, a confessional poet may write about the experience of having a death in the family, but this does not mean that the poet is only speaking for himself, because while the matter is addressed from a personal point of view, the matter is something that concerns or may happen to anybody else. In other words, although confessional poetry may be written from the point of view of the voice or the I, these pieces aim to convey a public message or emotion. Some traditional poets find this approach conceited, however, this is exactly what confessional poetry is not it is not conceited. Personality cannot be equated with conceit, especially in confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is not just self-expression, confessional poetry has a universal value in spite of its personal confessions, it reveals universal truths, while self-expression is narcissistic in the negative meaning of the term. (Rosenthal) What makes a poem confessional is not only its subject mattere.g., family, sex, alcoholism, madnessor the emphasis on self, but also the directness with which such things are handled. (Yezzi)
Confessional poetry, as mentioned awhile ago, began in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is associated with poets such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass. (Poetry. Org) This kind of poetry emerged as a result of poets wanting to go against or break the conventions of what was then established as the accepted Academic-Modern style of which T.S. Elliot was popular for. The shift from the doctrine of impersonality that defined the poetic orthodoxy of modernism under Eliot and Ransom to the naked poetry of the Beats and confessional poets reflected a profound shift in modern culture. (Poets.org) While this particular type of poetry already existed during these periods, it was not until 1959 that two milestones of confessional poetry were published Lowells Life Studies and Snodgrasss Hearts Needle. The first book that is considered confessional, however, is Allen Ginsbergs Howl and Other Poems, published in 1956. (Poets.org)
While T.S. Elliot was never threatened by the emergence of this new aesthetic movement having established himself as one of the foremost modern poets and critics, he, on certain occasions, asserted that the formalistic, impersonal approach in poetry was the way to go. Despite this assertion, however, in many of Elliots pieces, there is tangible evidence that he, too, had the tendency to become confessional whether in form, in content, or in style. For instance, from the piece, A Cooking Egg we have the stanza,
But where is the penny world I bought
To eat with Pipit behind the screen
The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golders Green (Elliot)
he uses the pronoun I in the first line, but even this is not always enough to categorize a piece as confessional. However, if the I is considered in the context of the entire first line, a different picture begins to surface. In this particular stanza Elliot reveals a propensity to succumb to humanistic emotions, as the voice in the poem begins to sound begging or, continuing to the second line, questioning of events, giving this stanza a bit more personality than it should have had if Elliot had been more conscious of his formalistic advocacy. This slight shift in the tone of the poem as resulting from the subtle emotions in the first two lines indicates Elliots unwary acceptance of the elements of confessional poetry. This is not the only piece where Elliot succumbs to the conventions of confessionalism. In A Portrait of a Lady Elliot writes,
You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
For indeed I do not love it ... you knew you are not blind
How keen you are
Perhaps you can write to me.
My self-possession flares up for a second
This is as I had reckoned.
I have been wondering frequently of late
(But our beginnings never know our ends) (Elliot)
in which one would find a discourse occurring between the external and internal self of the voice. Here, the voice makes a statement and seemingly doubts these statements by putting in side comments, probably only happening within the mind of the voice. This exchange of thoughts qualifies as dialogue, again, giving the poem (or the stanzas) personality, revealing the tendency of the voice for editorialization, something that is common among confessional poets. In these few lines, the voice gives way to personal and more intimate thoughts about the subject matter, and therefore crosses the border of impersonality by allowing the reader access into the thoughts of the I of the poem.
On the matter of thematics, we have the following lines from the poem, Whispers of Immortality by the same author
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.
Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense,
To seize and clutch and penetrate
Expert beyond experience, (Elliot)
Noticeably in the first stanza of this excerpt Elliot paints a morbid portrait reminiscent of Gothicism. Here we find the poet pre-empting the voice and creating imagery that although formalistic, reveals more graphic and vividly honest undertones as opposed to the subtle treatment of themes in earlier contemporary verse. In the second stanza, again, Elliot, while faithful to the prosody of academic-modern poetry, makes a supposition consistent with the direction confessional poetry usually goes.
These lapses in Elliots poetry in the context of confessional poetry does not make the poet less of a poet rather, it simply illustrates that poetry is often spontaneous and yet intentional. The prosody is mainly because poetry is intentional, and it is the form that is mostly affected by this intentionality of the poet. Most of the time, despite the attention that goes into the form, expression comes out spontaneously, hence, the apparent leaning of some of Elliots poems toward confessional poetry and while this is true for most poets, current trends dictate that poetry evolves and often, the newer and more contemporary or even experimental forms are bound to attract the discerning eyes of those who advocate traditional forms and genres.
The main characteristic of confessional poetry is the use of the pronoun I. -Confessional poetry is the poetry of the personal or I. (Poets.org) Some scholars consider confessional poetry to be poetry that emerged as a response to the Elliotic school of extinction of personality (Rosenthal) confessional poetry directly and vociferously opposed the impersonality argued for by T. S. Eliot in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. (Yezzi) In terms of content, confessional poetry often tackles such subjects as depression, trauma, relationships and death. (Poets.org) However, this is not to say that the universality of the genre is compromised, because although confessional poetry tackles these subjects from the personal or intrinsic point of view, the approach to the significant human experience in question tends to embrace a genetic concept of the issue concerned. Therefore, although confessional poetry can be autobiographical at times (and it mostly is), the issues tackled or the subject matter of the poetry is something that all of society can identify with or something that man experiences in general. For instance, a confessional poet may write about the experience of having a death in the family, but this does not mean that the poet is only speaking for himself, because while the matter is addressed from a personal point of view, the matter is something that concerns or may happen to anybody else. In other words, although confessional poetry may be written from the point of view of the voice or the I, these pieces aim to convey a public message or emotion. Some traditional poets find this approach conceited, however, this is exactly what confessional poetry is not it is not conceited. Personality cannot be equated with conceit, especially in confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is not just self-expression, confessional poetry has a universal value in spite of its personal confessions, it reveals universal truths, while self-expression is narcissistic in the negative meaning of the term. (Rosenthal) What makes a poem confessional is not only its subject mattere.g., family, sex, alcoholism, madnessor the emphasis on self, but also the directness with which such things are handled. (Yezzi)
Confessional poetry, as mentioned awhile ago, began in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is associated with poets such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass. (Poetry. Org) This kind of poetry emerged as a result of poets wanting to go against or break the conventions of what was then established as the accepted Academic-Modern style of which T.S. Elliot was popular for. The shift from the doctrine of impersonality that defined the poetic orthodoxy of modernism under Eliot and Ransom to the naked poetry of the Beats and confessional poets reflected a profound shift in modern culture. (Poets.org) While this particular type of poetry already existed during these periods, it was not until 1959 that two milestones of confessional poetry were published Lowells Life Studies and Snodgrasss Hearts Needle. The first book that is considered confessional, however, is Allen Ginsbergs Howl and Other Poems, published in 1956. (Poets.org)
While T.S. Elliot was never threatened by the emergence of this new aesthetic movement having established himself as one of the foremost modern poets and critics, he, on certain occasions, asserted that the formalistic, impersonal approach in poetry was the way to go. Despite this assertion, however, in many of Elliots pieces, there is tangible evidence that he, too, had the tendency to become confessional whether in form, in content, or in style. For instance, from the piece, A Cooking Egg we have the stanza,
But where is the penny world I bought
To eat with Pipit behind the screen
The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golders Green (Elliot)
he uses the pronoun I in the first line, but even this is not always enough to categorize a piece as confessional. However, if the I is considered in the context of the entire first line, a different picture begins to surface. In this particular stanza Elliot reveals a propensity to succumb to humanistic emotions, as the voice in the poem begins to sound begging or, continuing to the second line, questioning of events, giving this stanza a bit more personality than it should have had if Elliot had been more conscious of his formalistic advocacy. This slight shift in the tone of the poem as resulting from the subtle emotions in the first two lines indicates Elliots unwary acceptance of the elements of confessional poetry. This is not the only piece where Elliot succumbs to the conventions of confessionalism. In A Portrait of a Lady Elliot writes,
You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,
And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
For indeed I do not love it ... you knew you are not blind
How keen you are
Perhaps you can write to me.
My self-possession flares up for a second
This is as I had reckoned.
I have been wondering frequently of late
(But our beginnings never know our ends) (Elliot)
in which one would find a discourse occurring between the external and internal self of the voice. Here, the voice makes a statement and seemingly doubts these statements by putting in side comments, probably only happening within the mind of the voice. This exchange of thoughts qualifies as dialogue, again, giving the poem (or the stanzas) personality, revealing the tendency of the voice for editorialization, something that is common among confessional poets. In these few lines, the voice gives way to personal and more intimate thoughts about the subject matter, and therefore crosses the border of impersonality by allowing the reader access into the thoughts of the I of the poem.
On the matter of thematics, we have the following lines from the poem, Whispers of Immortality by the same author
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.
Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense,
To seize and clutch and penetrate
Expert beyond experience, (Elliot)
Noticeably in the first stanza of this excerpt Elliot paints a morbid portrait reminiscent of Gothicism. Here we find the poet pre-empting the voice and creating imagery that although formalistic, reveals more graphic and vividly honest undertones as opposed to the subtle treatment of themes in earlier contemporary verse. In the second stanza, again, Elliot, while faithful to the prosody of academic-modern poetry, makes a supposition consistent with the direction confessional poetry usually goes.
These lapses in Elliots poetry in the context of confessional poetry does not make the poet less of a poet rather, it simply illustrates that poetry is often spontaneous and yet intentional. The prosody is mainly because poetry is intentional, and it is the form that is mostly affected by this intentionality of the poet. Most of the time, despite the attention that goes into the form, expression comes out spontaneously, hence, the apparent leaning of some of Elliots poems toward confessional poetry and while this is true for most poets, current trends dictate that poetry evolves and often, the newer and more contemporary or even experimental forms are bound to attract the discerning eyes of those who advocate traditional forms and genres.
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