The Expatriates

“Her Kind” by Anne Sexton

Also published in her debut collection To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), “Her Kind” has significant popular appeal. Published against the advice of her mentor, the poem is a raw and personal feminist rallying cry against the social structure of the 1950s housewife. More militant and thematically more complex than “The Expatriates,” “Her Kind” is a one example of the range of Sexton’s Confessional poetics.

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath is another legendary woman poet of Confessionalism. Like Sexton, she attended poetry workshops with Robert Lowell and lived with mental illness. She also wrote intimately about the dark underside of the 1950s housewife’s experience, and she also committed suicide at a young age. “Daddy” is one of her most famous poems, providing a good example of Plath’s image-forward poetry, while also showcasing the intimate tone that makes her poetry emblematic of the Confessional movement.

“The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator” by Anne Sexton

This poem by Sexton, written later in her career, illustrates her disregard for social norms of the time. The poem discusses female masturbation, a taboo topic, emphasizing themes of sadness and loneliness. Similar to “The Expatriates,” the “Ballad” demonstrates the incisive, personal tone of Sexton’s work.