Perhaps one of the most personal subjects, the relationship between the family unit has been explored in depth in confessional poetry. Renowned confessional poet Robert Lowell explored the idea of ​​fatherhood while battling mental illness. Lowell wrote about a pain that many readers could relate to. Going through separation and divorce, Lowell felt vulnerable and this was particularly evident in his writing about his daughter. The vulnerability Lowell experiences during this time seems to grow with each poem, and he seems to develop a fixation on the relationship he shares with his daughter and, in particular, the gulf between them. While initially drawing comparisons between himself and his infant daughter in the first poem of For Lizzie and Harriet (e.g. both being tired by the passage of time), he seems to break down further in The Hard Way, feeling lonelier as his daughter reaches an age associated with self-sufficiency and rebellion. At this point in the collection of poems, it seems that Lowell has become more preoccupied with the idea of ​​mortality, both his own and that of his daughter. It seems he doesn't know how to bridge the gap between the two of them and so offers her the best advice he thinks he can. “Don’t hate your parents, otherwise your children will hire strangers to bury you at your expense.” (Lowell, 2003) It is almost a plea addressed to his daughter. This shows how deeply concerned he is about the distance between them. While it seems that Lowell has a dour view of adolescence, it also seems that his genuine attempt to impart some wisdom to his daughter is the result of some emotional growth. The reader is presented with a powerful image of a man who, in the middle of a paper, ate this sentiment. Sexton goes on to describe his passion for death, which far outweighs his passion for life. She thinks death is an art. She thinks suicide will bring relief. These extremely private thoughts disturb the reader, who can infer that Sexton's state of mind is such that these thoughts could turn into actions at any time, which they ultimately did. Molesworth argues that all confessional poets share a "common denominator": "a split between revealing intimate details in an unvarnished context and obscuring the occult curve of their own dissociated and concealed emotional lives." Whether or not the writing of this intensely personal poetry caused a downward spiral for Plath and Sexton (and perhaps other poets), it stands to reason that it is nonetheless an extremely powerful expression to for both the poet and the reader..