Confessionalism is a label formally applied to a style of American poetry which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. The label continues to be applied, though usually in a derogatory sense, to poetry about personal experience, particularly when that poetry is written carelessly or thoughtlessly.

Confessionalist poets draw on personal history for their inspiration. Often well schooled in verse traditions, they choose to mine their own lives for subject matter, often using personal trauma as fuel for literary or dramatic effect. Of the poets emerging in the late 1950s, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton are most commonly identified as Confessionalists. Much of John Berryman's work is considered Confessionalist, and Robert Lowell is widely regarded as the most accomplished in the Confessionalist movement. There are strong Confessionalist elements in the work of the Beat poets in the 1950s and 1960s, notably in Allen Ginsberg. There are several meanings of the word inspiration: The stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions leading to creativity. ... Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ... A self-portrait circa 1951. ... Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928–October 4, 1974), born Anne Gray Harvey, was an American poet and writer. ... John Berryman (originally John Smith) (October 25, 1914 - January 7, 1972) was an American poet, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. ... Robert Lowell Robert Lowell (March 1, 1917–September 12, 1977), born Robert Traill Spence Lowell, Jr. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... Allen Ginsberg in San Francisco. ...

Many Confessionalist writers explore themes of madness in their poetry. Although most Confessionalist poets of the 1950s and 1960s met and knew each other, they did not seek to identify themselves as part of a distinct literary movement. The label was developed and applied to the movement in the 1970s. Madness has several uses: One who is affected by madness could be deemed insane or could have a mental illness A band, see Madness (band) A violent flash cartoon series, see Madness Combat. ...