"Venus and the Ark" - Group C

You're absolutely right about the first stanza Nellie.  The way Sexton reads those lines further illustrates how she feels that modern society has in a way lost its passion for life.  Her voice is very (quite literally actually) "matter-of-fact."  She introduces and reads the beginning of the poem as if it isn't even worth much.

As far as the poem being "confessional," maybe.  The way she read it seemed like she didn't really care for it, but that could also just have been to prove the point she was making: that human society has become autonomous and bland.  It might be confessional in that sense.  She views all this advancement in technology and lack of appreciation for nature as our path to a sort of race "reboot."