Editing Symbolism (movement) (section)

===Techniques===
[[File:Étienne Carjat, Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, circa 1862.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Charles Baudelaire]] (c.&nbsp;1862), whose writing was a precursor of the symbolist style]]

The symbolist poets wished to liberate techniques of versification in order to allow greater room for "fluidity", and as such were sympathetic with the trend toward [[free verse]], as evident in the poems of [[Gustave Kahn]] and [[Ezra Pound]]. Symbolist poems were attempts to evoke, rather than primarily to describe; symbolic imagery was used to signify the state of the poet's [[soul]]. [[T. S. Eliot]] was influenced by the poets [[Jules Laforgue]], [[Paul Valéry]] and [[Arthur Rimbaud]] who used the techniques of the Symbolist school,<ref>Untermeyer, Louis, Preface to ''Modern American Poetry'' Harcourt Brace & Co New York 1950</ref> though it has also been said{{By whom|date=February 2013}}  that '[[Imagism]]' was the style to which both Pound and Eliot subscribed (see Pound's ''Des Imagistes''). [[Synesthesia]] was a prized experience; poets sought to identify and confound the separate senses of scent, sound, and colour. In [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]]'s poem ''Correspondences'' (which mentions ''forêts de symboles'' ("forests of symbols") and is considered the touchstone of French Symbolism):<ref>Pratt, William. ''The Imagist Poem, Modern Poetry in Miniature'' (Story Line Press, 1963, expanded 2001). {{ISBN|1-58654-009-2}}</ref>

:''Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,<br />Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,<br />– Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,<br /><br />Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies,<br />Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens,<br />Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.''

::(There are fragrances that are fresh like children's skin,<br /> calm like oboes, green like meadows<br />– And others, rotten, heady, and triumphant,<br /><br />having the expansiveness of infinite things,<br /> like amber, musk, benzoin, and incense,<br />which sing of the raptures of the soul and senses.)

and [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]]'s poem ''[[Voyelles]]'':

:''A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu : voyelles…''
::(A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels…)

– both poets seek to identify one sense experience with another. The earlier [[Romanticism]] of poetry used [[symbol]]s, but these symbols were unique and privileged objects.  The symbolists were more extreme, investing all things, even vowels and perfumes, with potential symbolic value. "The physical universe, then, is a kind of language that invites a privileged spectator to decipher it, although this does not yield a single message so much as a superior network of associations."<ref>Olds, Marshal C. [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=modlangfrench "Literary Symbolism"], originally published (as Chapter 14) in ''A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture'', edited by David Bradshaw and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Pages 155–162.</ref> Symbolist symbols are not [[allegory|allegories]], intended to represent; they are instead intended to [[evocation|evoke]] particular states of mind.  The nominal subject of Mallarmé's "Le cygne" ("The [[Swan]]") is of a swan trapped in a frozen lake.  Significantly, in French, ''[[wikt:cygne|cygne]]'' is a homophone of ''[[wikt:signe|signe]]'', a sign. The overall effect is of overwhelming whiteness; and the presentation of the narrative elements of the description is quite indirect:

:''Le vierge, le vivace, et le bel aujourd'hui<br />Va-t-il nous déchirer avec un coup d’aile ivre<br />Ce lac dur oublié que hante sous le givre<br />Le transparent glacier des vols qui n’ont pas fui!<br />Un cygne d’autrefois se souvient que c’est lui<br />Magnifique mais qui sans espoir se délivre…''
::(The virgin, lively, and beautiful today – <br />Will it tear us up with a drunken wingbeat<br />This hard forgotten lake that lurks beneath the frost,<br />The transparent glacier of flights not taken with a blow from a drunken wing?<br />A swan of long ago remembers that it is he<br />Magnificent but without hope, who breaks free…)