Confessional Mothers

Having a depressed feeling can often be hard to talk about, especially if one is unhappy right after having a baby. It has often been society’s belief that this should be one of the happiest times of your life because you have a new baby, a new life. If one suffers from postpartum depression after having birth if will feel anything but “happiness.” This may cause one to feel as though they are not a good mother and the baby and the family would be better off without you. Anne Sexton, a confessional poet suffered from postpartum depression and many other confessional poets suffered from a range of mental disorders and depression. Confessional Poetry reminded me of Uncle Tom’s Cabin when the women were being forced to separate from their children. Anne Sexton writes in her poem Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman, “Oh darling! Born in that sweet birthday suit and having owned it and know it for so long.” Women cherish their children and the deep depression a lot of these poems went into allowed one to visualize that sadness that some of these women felt when they lost their child. Although Anne Sextons poem Sylvia’s Death was not written for losing a child, confessional poetry is known for entering into the idea of death and sadness that other poems do not. I feel as though confessional poetry can allow you to tap into that emotion that is needed for understand Uncle Tom’s Cabin for all of those women and children that had to be separated.

Sexton, Anne. "Little Girl, My String Benan, My Lovely Woman." American
     Literature. Ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. Eighth ed. New York: W.
     W. Norton & Company, Inc., n.d. 1377-79. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton
     Anthology. 2 vols