Podcast Brainstorming

The poetic form I am considering writing about is not typically considered a form, but rather, a genre. However, I will argue the confessional style in terms of the qualities it has.

Confessionals poetry is a deeply personal relationship between the speaker and the self. The specific poem I am focusing on is “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath. It is a confession of her mental state, and is one of the last works written by Plath before her suicide in 1963. Some influential ideas that come from the confessional style are poets using images that reflected intense psychological experiences, like in the case of Plath. The confessional also is realistic in the sense that poets will write about real life experiences or people.

The format I am considering for my podcast is monologue. The two questions I am considering for research topics are (1) How does the confessional style of “Lady Lazarus” allude to Plath’s suicide? (2)How does the use of “I” shape the tone and direction of the poem? The resources I want to use are the Poetry Foundation and potentially a journal from The Standish Library databases.

As the project progresses I might include a comparison of “Lady Lazarus” to other poems that have the three-lined stanzas. Focusing on the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” as it relates to the confessional style will be key.