Research

Symbolism began in France; Jean Morleas was the person who first used the phrase for the poetic movement. It began in the later part of the eighteen hundreds. It was in response to realism and to idealism that the movement first came into being.

Symbolism stresses the importance of the individual and the individuals’ life as the most vital part of poetry. It does not embrace conventionality, and reject religion overall. The poets of the Symbolist Movement believed that what the larger group thought could not compare in significance to what the individual thought. They were the polar opposite of the Naturalists, who believed that one should find humanity through the physical world. The Symbolists believed that one should find humanity through the emotions and sentiments that they expressed in their writing, not in any physical forms. The movement came largely from the Decadents, who wanted to stretch the limits that language had, and who received a lot of criticisms from other artists. The motto for the movement was and still is “individualism in literature, liberty in art.”

The movement evolved into a movement for the obscure; the poets became infatuated with erotic topics. They believed that there was a connection between the physical and spiritual. They later developed musical capabilities in their poetry, such as constant refrains. They wanted mood to have more effect than meaning. Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarme were the starters of the movement, and it ended in two decades.

The poems that I have read so far have been very erotic. They do not really connect to any other poems that I have read before. I liked only the ones that are comical, and not so intense. I think that this part of poetry is largely ignored for having such a large effect on writing as a whole. The symbolists were really the first to ask the question “Why does all poetry have to be the same?” in such a radical way. Poets like the Proto-Modernists (Dickinson, Hopkins) definitely went against the grain, but did not explore so much beyond.