Symbolism in Modern Poetry: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé
Symbolism in Modern Poetry
This explores the human condition. The poem itself is an enigma, and the poet works with the suggestive power of words. The clan of synesthesia and music will emerge. The poet is in the Gouffre (gap) and captures the mixture of angelic and diabolical elements.
Symbolism and Modern Poetry: Key Authors
Generally speaking, symbolist poetry is post-Romantic poetry permanently marked by the names of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, and Verlaine.
Anna Balakian traces the origin of the symbol concept to the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg. According to him, the meaning of the spiritual has a relationship that can be expressed in symbols.
Correspondence begins with the key word to understand that the analogy between reality and symbol sets up a supra-reality. Emerson’s theory of transcendentalism influenced Edgar Allan Poe. The English poet William Blake argued for the knowledge of all joy from the senses. Romanticism was appropriating the land, and mystical art was forged as a substitute for religion. Thus, poetry is moving towards enlightenment, as in the case of Novalis.
Charles Baudelaire ensured the transition from Romantic poetry to symbolist poetry. Baudelaire undertook the task of raising analogy to the divine idea through language, but with a correspondence between soil and land. His imatgista work caused a sensation with its musical suggestions. The external stimuli are artificial paradise and a decadent movement.
The most characteristic features of his poetry are that it explores the human condition; the poem is an enigma; he works with the suggestive power of words; and in the Gouffre, he captures the mixture of the angelic and diabolical. Mallarmé, Verlaine, and Rimbaud advocated an aesthetic and poetic practice that highlighted the symbolic value of birds, desert areas, water purification, symbolic play with colors, a musical vocabulary, Greek myths, and medieval themes. The mirror, the personification of death, and the idea of isolation, loneliness, and curse are also prominent.
Mallarmé, Verlaine, and Rimbaud
Mallarmé’s work went through three stages: classical, mystical, and hermetic. He developed an abstract vocabulary that resulted in silence. Among his works is Après-midi d’un faune.
Verlaine created much of the terminology and symbolism to give his poems the appearance of a musical sound. He was connected with the Poèmes saturniens, and the fullness of his work is most evident in Jadis et Naguère.
Rimbaud is noteworthy for his ideas of enlightenment and vision. He created a poetic prose work in Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell), mixing free verse and poetic prose in Illuminations.
Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism
Oscar Wilde advocated the idea that life imitates art. He is one of the best writers who embody this attitude of making an aesthetic lifestyle, while becoming the representative of so-called dandisme. He wrote short stories and a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which tells a story of moral degradation. He wrote plays, including Salome and Lady Windermere’s Fan. Besides, he inspired the eponymous opera by Richard Strauss.