Confessional poets often write about their own personal experiences, without filtering painful emotions. One of the 1960s
most influential
confessional poets, Sylvia Plath, used the anger and grief that stemmed from her father's death when she was only eight as the subject of many poems. This paper discusses tone in two of the most well-known Plath poems, "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus," in which she tackles her depression in very different ways. It shows how Plath's word choice in both poems creates two opposing tones on similar subject matter. In "Daddy," Plath is
clearly filled with bitterness and rage, but she is almost playful and sarcastic in "Lady Lazarus." The paper shows, too, how Plath channels her own personal world of suicidal escape in both poems, but she clearly changes tone in each by selecting words with specific meanings. Biographical information on Plath is also included.