Abstract
This study is a cognitive-semantic study of confessional poetry which entails a cognitive analysis of selected poems from American confessional poetry . It sheds light on a basic problem concerning metaphor. The problem specifically lies in the complexities and the difficulties that may face readers when they are trying to understand, interpret and utilize metaphorical conceptualizations because of their complex and unique composition, especially poetry. Knowledge and prior experience are required to comprehend those metaphorical conceptualizations or conceptual metaphors(CMs).In poetry, various forms of CMs are used by poets and those forms deeply influence the way of understanding and interpreting their poetry. This study is intended to analyze CMs in confessional poetry. The study focuses on this phenomenon in a number of selected confessional poems that are written by Anne Sexton who uses different forms of CMs in her confessional poems with various forms of source domain (SD) and target domain (TD). The study aims at determining how effectively the chosen Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) , by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) accounts for the production of meaning and cognitive reality in CMs , finding out the sorts of CMs, SDs and TDs that are found in Anne Sexton’s poetry and the ways readers can grasp CMs. The study hypothesizes that each metaphorical expression(ME) in the selected poems can be attributed to the CM and can be categorized as either belonging to the TD or the SD with their different types. In addition, it is hypothesized that confessional poetry of Anne Sexton involves CMs and different types of SD and TD. The study is based on a mixed approach that includes both; qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. It is also based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Kövecses (2010) models of CMs for analysing the selected data that contain ten poems by Anne Sexton. After analyzing these poems, it has been proved that the selected models are workable, appropriate and contain the adequate mechanisms that help the researcher analyze the concept of CM. It has also been found that Anne Sexton depends on different forms of CM to confess her emotions and desires. The poetess uses two types of CMs; the structural and ontological, while the orientational type of metaphor does not appear in the analyzed poems. These types of metaphors are proved to include several forms of SD including; Inanimate (object), human, animal, plant, unnatural (creature), place and time. Regarding the TDs, the selected poems are assured to contain different types like: emotion, time and religion
