by Julie Raney

What are Symbolist poets?

Symbolism began as an artistic and literary movement within a group of French poets in the late 1800s. Practitioners sought to express one person’s emotional experience through the subtle and suggestive use of symbolized language. (Symbolist Movement)

Symbolism is…

A late 19th century movement which began in France and Belgium. It was largely a reaction to Realism and Naturalism, two literary movements which sought to capture reality in its dirty truth and elevate the ordinary over the ideal (Symbolism (arts)). “A complex movement that deliberately extended the evocative power of words to express the feelings, sensations and states of mind that lie beyond everyday awareness…. What mattered in Symbolism was the coherence of that inner vision, and the sheer beauty of the verse” (Symbolist Poets).

“--Over there, framed by a branch
You can see a little patch of dark blue
Stung by a sinister star that fades
With faint quiverings, so small and white…”
(Rimbaud, Novel).

Major poets include:

Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, and Charles Baudelaire— all French; the Belgians Émile Verhearden and Georges Rodenbach; and American-born Francis Viélé-Griffin and Stuart Merrill. (Symbolist Movement)

Background:

Symbolism hit its peak around 1890 and began dying out in 1900 (Symbolist Movement). The Symbolist manifesto was published in 1886 by Jean Moréas. Moréas announced that Symbolism was hostile to “plain meanings, declamations, false sentimentality and matter-of-fact description,” and its goal was to “clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form…whose sole purpose was to express the Ideal…. Symbolist poems sought to evoke, rather than describe” (Symbolism (arts)). Symbolism had a significant influence on Modernism and its effects can be seen in the works of T.S. Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Wallace Stevens, Conrad Aiken, and William Butler Yeats. Precursors to Symbolism include William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In order to escape rigid metrical patterns and achieve freer poetic rhythms, many Symbolist poets resorted to writing prose poems and using free verse, which has now become a fundamental form of poetry today (Symbolism Movement).

Works Cited

Rimbaud, Arthur. Novel. Trans. Wyatt Mason. 19 Feb. 2008. http://www.poets.com/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16330.

“Symbolism (arts).” Wikipedia. 19 Feb. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolism_(arts).

“Symbolist Movement.” Encyclopedia Britannica Article. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved 19 Feb. 2008. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9070716.

“Symbolist Poets.” 19 Feb. 2008. http://www.textetc.com/modernist/symbolism.html.