Poetry for Students, Volume 29

Some critics attribute Snodgrass’s waning
reputation to the tremendous impact ‘‘Heart’s
Needle’’ had when it was first published. Writing
in the Southern Review in 2006, Jay Rogoff
recalled a discussion he had with another poet
who, in the 1980s, had recently rereadHeart’s
Needleand had failed to understand the enthusi-
asm she had once had for it and for confessional
poetry in general. Rogoff explains, ‘‘Our difficulty
today in seeing Snodgrass’s special quality
actually derives from his success and his influence,
as well as the influence of Lowell, John Berryman,
Sylvia Plath, and others: What looked forbidden
in his poetry, what made itnew and startling at the
time, has become the norm.’’ Nevertheless, Rog-
off goes on to praiseHeart’s Needlefor its ‘‘impec-
cable craft,’’ noting that ‘‘its technical mastery still
compels us and argues for its enduring power.’’

Criticism.

David Kelly
Kelly is a writer and an instructor of creative writ-
ing and literature at two colleges in Illinois. In the
following essay, he explores the implications of the

label ‘‘confessional poetry’’ and how the label

relates to ‘‘Heart’s Needle.’’

In the nearly half a century since it was first

published, W. D. Snodgrass’s poem ‘‘Heart’s

Needle’’ has been referred to as one of the earliest

examples of the burgeoning confessional poetry

movement. It is a label that Snodgrass has tried

Egg in nest(Pat Powers and Cherryl Schafer / Phototdisc / Getty
Images)

WHAT

DO I READ

NEXT?

 The poet Seamus Heaney wrote a modern

translation of the traditional Irish legend

Buile Suibhne, the myth that Snodgrass

quotes at the beginning of ‘‘Heart’s Needle.’’

Heaney’s modernized version, titledSwee-

ney Astray, was published in 1984.

 In section 9 of ‘‘Heart’s Needle,’’ Snodgrass

gives a detailed description of a visit to a

museum, tucked away in a university build-

ing, that has display cases full of animals

that have been stuffed and posed. The socio-

logical aspect of such museums is explored

in Stephen T. Asma’s 2003 studyStuffed

Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture

and Evolution of Natural History Museums.

 While ‘‘Heart’s Needle’’ is often considered

the first poem to be categorized as confes-

sional, Sylvia Plath’s ‘‘Daddy,’’ in which an

adult daughter voices her resentment

toward her father, is considered one of the

most powerful examples of confessional

poetry. It was published in 1965, shortly

after Plath’s death, in her collectionAriel.

 The term ‘‘confessional poetry’’ was coined

to describe Robert Lowell’sLife Studies.

The collection was published in 1959, the

same year asHeart’s Needle.

 Snodgrass uses ‘‘Heart’s Needle’’ to demon-

strate how a writer begins a work in his essay

‘‘Finding a Poem.’’ The essay is included in

his bookIn Radical Pursuit: Critical Essays

and Lectures(1975).

Heart’s Needle