Symbolist

A group of late 19th-century French writers who favored dreams, visions, and the associative powers of the imagination in their poetry.

Charles Baudelaire is one of the most compelling poets of the 19th century. While Baudelaire’s contemporary Victor Hugo is generally—and sometimes regretfully—acknowledged as the greatest of 19th-century French…

Stéphane Mallarmé was recognized as one of France’s four major poets of the second half of the 19th century, along with Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud. Much of his poetry was acknowledged…

Though he considered himself to be mainly a painter, lived most of his life in the United States, and wrote his best-known works in English, Kahlil Gibran was the key figure in a Romantic movement that transformed…

British poet, critic, and translator Arthur Symons was born in Wales and educated by private tutors. At 16, Symons moved to London, where he joined a vibrant literary community and participated, alongside …

There's a flutter of grey through the trees:
   Ah, the exquisite curves of her dress as she passes
   Fleet with her feet on the path where the grass is!

I see not her face, I but see
   The swift re-appearance, the...

A major influence on the Symbolist movement, French poet Paul Verlaine was born in Metz, France in 1844. Verlaine was also one of the models for the Decadent movement that began in the 1870s. His numerous …

Anna Akhmatova is regarded as one of Russia’s greatest poets. In addition to poetry, she wrote prose including memoirs, autobiographical pieces, and literary scholarship on Russian writers such as Aleksandr…

The impact of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry has been immense. His influence on the Surrealist movement has been widely acknowledged, and a host of poets, from André Breton to André Freynaud, have recognized their…

Anemone and columbine
Where gloom has lain
Opened in gardens
Between love and disdain

Made somber by the sun
Our shadows meet
Until the sun
Is squandered by night

Gods of living water
Let down their hair
And now you must follow
A craving for shadows

Under Mirabeau Bridge the river slips away
          And lovers
    Must I be reminded
Joy came always after pain


         The night is a clock chiming
         The days go by not I


We're face to face and hand in hand
         While under the bridges
    Of embrace expire
Eternal...