Confessional Poetry. Confessional poetry is verse that describes, sometimes with painful explicitness, the private or personal affairs of the writer. Often confessional poetry has the quality of a diary entry or of an overheard interior monologue, but equally often it is highly artificial, employing much personal symbolism. As you read, think about what personal experience the poem relates.
Epigraph. An epigraph is a quotation or motto used at the beginning of the whole or part of a literary work to help establish the work’s theme. In the letter quoted in this poem’s epigraph, van Gogh implies that painting the stars is for him a religious experience. Sexton sees mythic elements in the painting.
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“The Starry Night” comes from Sexton’s collection All My Pretty Ones (1962). The title of the collection comes from a statement made by MacDuff, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, upon hearing of the deaths of his wife and children. The title of the poem refers to a famous painting by Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh, like Sexton, suffered from depression, which was intensified in van Gogh’s case by a crisis of religious faith. The epigraph at the beginning of Sexton’s poem comes from one of the remarkable letters that van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.
As you read, make a chart. On the left, list elements from the poem that are related to religion or mythology. On the right, tell how these elements are used in the poem. One example has been done for you.
What things in nature inspire you with awe?
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