Editing Symbolism (movement) (section)

===Paul Verlaine and the ''poètes maudits''===
Of the several attempts at defining the essence of symbolism, perhaps none was more influential than [[Paul Verlaine]]'s 1884 publication of a series of essays on [[Tristan Corbière]], [[Arthur Rimbaud]], [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], [[Marceline Desbordes-Valmore]], [[Gérard de Nerval]], and "Pauvre Lelian" ("Poor Lelian", an anagram of Paul Verlaine's own name), each of whom Verlaine numbered among the ''[[Poète maudit|poètes maudits]]'', "accursed poets."

[[File:Eugen Bracht - Das Gestade der Vergessenheit (1889).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Eugen Bracht]], ''The Shore of Oblivion'', 1889]]

Verlaine argued that in their individual and very different ways, each of these hitherto neglected poets found [[genius]] a curse; it isolated them from their contemporaries, and as a result these poets were not at all concerned to avoid [[hermeticism]] and idiosyncratic writing styles.<ref>[[Paul Verlaine]], ''[http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Po%C3%A8tes_maudits Les Poètes maudits]''</ref> They were also portrayed as at odds with society, having tragic lives, and often given to self-destructive tendencies. These traits were not hindrances but consequences of their literary gifts. Verlaine's concept of the ''poète maudit'' in turn borrows from Baudelaire, who opened his collection ''[[Les fleurs du mal]]'' with the poem ''[[Bénédiction]]'', which describes a poet whose internal serenity remains undisturbed by the contempt of the people surrounding him.<ref>[[Charles Baudelaire]], ''[http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9diction Bénédiction]''</ref>

In this conception of genius and the role of the poet, Verlaine referred indirectly to the [[aesthetics]] of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], the philosopher of [[pessimism]], who maintained that the purpose of art was to provide a temporary refuge from the world of strife of the [[will (philosophy)|will]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Delvaille, Bernard, ''La poésie symboliste: anthologie'', introduction. {{ISBN|2-221-50161-6}}</ref>