Identity

Though published in the 1970s, Noboa Polanco’s “Identity” shares very little in common with the Modernist and Confessional poetry that appeared both before and after its publication. The 1940s and 1950s saw an influx of Modernist themes like objectivity and impersonality, traits born from generations whose previous beliefs systems and livelihoods were upended by wars. Modernists like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein wrote weighty, heavily symbolic work that mirrored internal states of being. As a reaction to Modernism, the Confessional poets of the 1950s and 1960s, who can be further broken down by time periods, location, thematic concerns, and styles, most notably sought to make poetry personal again. Poets like Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell reintroduced the “I” into poems (along with “taboo” subjects like mental illness, sex, and desires). Confessional poetry also fits into Postmodernist poetry, which is poetry that rebels against strict rules and set meanings. “Identity,” with its emphasis on individuality and nonconformity, easily fits into the postmodern tradition of poetics that seeks to break down “universal” truths or meanings.

The poem also fits comfortably within the American Romantic tradition. The poem’s use of free verse, its emphasis on nature as a