Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton As Confessional Poets: A Comparative Study

Abstract

"Confession" is the Christian activity, especially m the Roman Catholic Church, of formally and privately telling a priest about all the wrong things that you have done so that you can be purgated or forgiven. A "confessional" is a small enclosed box-like room in a church in which a person can tell a priest privately about what they have done wrong and be forgiven.

The label "confessional" IS pregnant with meamngs and connotations. The first connotation of the term "confessional" is that confession in poetry, like its counterpart in religion, is motivated by "the need to confess." Unlike a criminal's confession to the authorities, which in most cases is imposed from without, confession in poetry-as in religion-is a voluntary act aiming at clearing the confessing person's conscience and providing an outlet through which excessive emotional pressures are vented.