Historical Preview
The Romantics wrote "personal poems" that were about nature or the elements or anything of that nature, but in the end they would still be about themselves. But starting in the late 1950's to the early 60's, poets, such as W.D. Snodgrass, Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath all rebelled against this idea and started using personal information that was shocking to all of their readers, beginning the style of poetry as "confessional". Much of this poetry was used to break taboos, suffering, and claiming that the person in the poem was not just a "speaker" but is actually the poet.
More on the history of the Confessional Movement
(http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/confessionalography-gnat-grossly-non-academic-talk-i-poetry)
More on the history of the Confessional Movement
(http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/confessionalography-gnat-grossly-non-academic-talk-i-poetry)