What is Symbolism?
Symbolism is a movement in poetry (and later in art and theatre). It started in France in the second half of the 1800s and was strong until about 1910.
The poets felt that plain, clear writing could not catch the deep and fuzzy parts of life: dreams, fear, longing, death, the soul. So they chose to hint. They wanted the reader to feel first and understand slowly.
A symbol is a thing (a swan, a rose, a tower, the sea) that stands for something bigger than itself, like a feeling or an idea. A sign has one fixed meaning. A symbol has many meanings and some stay hidden.
Where did it come from?
Before Symbolism came Romanticism (strong feelings) and Realism (plain facts). Symbolists wanted something new: the inner world, told through images.
- Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867): his book The Flowers of Evil (1857) found beauty in dark and city life. His idea of "correspondences" says that colours, sounds and scents answer one another. He is called the father of Symbolism.
- Paul Verlaine: he wrote soft, musical verse. In his poem on the art of poetry he asks for music and for words that are a little blurred.
- Arthur Rimbaud: a teenage genius who wrote wild, colourful poems and said a poet should look for the unknown.
- Stephane Mallarme: wrote hard, dreamy poems and said it is better to suggest an object than to name it.
A short note on terms: modernism is the big wave of new styles from about 1890 to 1930. Symbolism is one early part of it. Impressionism in painting caught the passing look of a moment; symbolist poetry caught the passing mood in a similar way.
Main features of Symbolist poems
- Suggestion: hint, do not explain.
- Symbols: everyday things carry feelings and ideas.
- Music: rhythm, rhyme and sound patterns are as important as meaning.
- Mixing of senses: a colour is heard, a sound is smelled. Rimbaud even gave each vowel a colour.
- Mood: dreams, mystery, sadness, longing, a feeling of beauty that cannot last.
- Free form: many poets loosened the old strict verse rules.
In 1886 a poet named Jean Moreas published a short text, often called the Symbolist Manifesto, that gave the group its name.
Symbolism in other countries
The movement travelled across Europe. Each country took the idea and made it its own.
- Italy: Giovanni Pascoli used small everyday things (a bird, a hedge, a bell) as hints of grief and wonder. Gabriele D'Annunzio wrote rich, sensual verse full of sound.
- Romania: poets like Alexandru Macedonski and George Bacovia used grey towns, rain and loneliness as symbols of inner feeling. When you read one Romanian symbolist poem, ask: what does the weather stand for?
- Ukraine: Mykola Voronyi called for a new, modern poetry. Oleksandr Oles wrote symbolist lyrics of love and of the native word. The early poems of Pavlo Tychyna are full of sound and colour. The prose writer Volodymyr Vynnychenko also used symbols in his short stories.
Notice the pattern: the mood and method are the same, but the symbols come from each country's own land and life.
How to read a symbolist poem
- Read it aloud once. Listen to the sound before the sense.
- Circle the repeating things (a bird, rain, a tower, a colour).
- Ask: what feeling does this thing carry?
- Write two or three possible meanings, not just one.
- Look for the mood of the whole poem.
- Do not say "the poet really means only X". There is usually more than one answer, but each answer needs a clue from the poem.
Try it
Try it at home: choose one ordinary thing near you (a lamp, a window, a clock). Write three lines about it without saying what it feels like. Give them to a friend and ask what feeling they get. If your friend guesses a feeling, you made a symbol. Then compare: did you both find the same meaning, or different ones?
Key formulas and definitions
- Symbol = a thing + the feelings or ideas it hints at
- Sign = one fixed meaning; Symbol = many meanings
- Symbolism = suggestion + symbols + music + mixed senses + mood
- Key people: Baudelaire (opener), Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarme
- Time: late 1800s to about 1910, started in France
Worked examples
1. A poem mentions a grey tower in the rain again and again. Give two possible symbolic meanings.
The tower can stand for loneliness (it stands apart) and for a wish to rise above life (it is tall). The rain can add sadness. Each meaning rests on a clue in the poem: repetition, grey colour, rain.
2. Is a red cross painted on a first-aid box a sign or a symbol? Explain.
It is mainly a sign: it has one fixed, clear meaning (help is here). A symbol in poetry would suggest several feelings or ideas and would not be explained.
3. Read this made-up line: "The evening bell drips silver into the blue." Which Symbolist features do you see?
Mixed senses (a sound, the bell, is described as silver liquid and as a colour), suggestion (no direct statement of feeling), and music (soft sound of the words). The mood is calm and dreamy.
Common mistakes
- Thinking a symbol has exactly one correct meaning. Several meanings can be right if the poem gives clues.
- Mixing up symbolism and imagery. Imagery paints a picture; a symbol makes the picture stand for something more.
- Treating Symbolism as only French. It spread to Italy, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Belgium and more.
- Believing symbolists did not care about meaning. They cared deeply, but wanted to suggest it through sound and image.