This paper proposes a new approach to reading the ‘Confessional Poetry’ of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by combining quantitative text analysis methods with a qualitative literary interpretation. We investigate the meanings of stylistic differences between Plath’s and Sexton’s poems and highlight their differences in using pronouns and related sentiment words. Our data-focused research demonstrates that Plath employs rather fragmented and schizophrenic styles, as well as poetic voices with word choices that present dynamic and volatile emotions. On the other hand, Sexton’s poetic voice is causal, homogeneous, and relatively stable, focusing a lot on domestic issues and the symbolic function of father. To illustrate this, three computational methods are used: (1) linking pronoun uses in each poet’s work to sentiment words (Figs 1 and 2), (2) a topic-model analysis to compare Plath’s and Sexton’s works to see how the themes of poetry are manifested by the different patterns of word use, the so-called topics, and their co-occurrences in the poems (Figs 3 and 4), and (3) a diachronic analysis of each poet’s works (using the topic model) to identify the thematic changes (Figs 5 and 6). The methods commonly testify one of the widely accepted ideas regarding Plath’s and Sexton’s confessional poems. Plath often breaks with the boundary of the ego, I, through complex reciprocity between I and other pronoun groups, while Sexton evokes the presence of the poet through more stable and less kinetic voices of the authorial I. Plath’s and Sexton’s works have long been regarded as the passive products of biological reductionism due to the traditional way of understanding the confessional genre. The aim of this paper, however, is to redefine the meaning of confessional genre, proposing that the truthfulness of the poetic voice I cannot be seperated from the stylistic issues in poetic language.

中文翻译：

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重温西尔维娅·普拉斯和安妮·塞克斯顿的忏悔诗：通过计算文本分析分析诗歌声音的风格差异和演变

本文通过将定量文本分析方法与定性文学解释相结合，提出了一种阅读 Sylvia Plath 和 Anne Sexton 的“忏悔诗”的新方法。我们研究了普拉斯和塞克斯顿诗歌之间风格差异的意义，并强调了他们在使用代词和相关情感词方面的差异。我们以数据为中心的研究表明，普拉斯采用了相当分散和精神分裂的风格，以及带有表达动态和多变情绪的词语选择的诗意声音。另一方面，塞克斯顿诗意的声音是因果的、同质的、相对稳定的，非常关注家庭问题和父亲的象征功能。为了说明这一点，使用了三种计算方法：（1）将每个诗人作品中的代词使用与情感词联系起来（图 1 和图 2），(2) 主题模型分析比较普拉斯和塞克斯顿的作品，看看诗歌的主题是如何通过不同的用词模式、所谓的主题以及它们在诗歌中的共现表现出来的（图 3 和图 4） )，以及 (3) 对每位诗人作品的历时分析（使用主题模型）以确定主题变化（图 5 和图 6）。这些方法通常证明了关于普拉斯和塞克斯顿的忏悔诗的广泛接受的观点之一。普拉斯通过 I 和其他代词组之间复杂的互惠经常打破自我的边界，而塞克斯顿则通过作者 I 的更稳定和更少动感的声音唤起诗人的存在。普拉斯和塞克斯顿的作品长期以来一直被认为是由于传统的忏悔体裁理解方式，它是生物还原论的被动产物。