My poem “Marsh Graveyard” is inspired by Symbolist poetry and is my attempt at the movement. Several images are evoked in my poem and death is a prevalent symbol, which was common of many Symbolist poems. I create some rhymes, but the poem is not forced into a rigid structure. The scene of a marsh and Native American burial site inspired this poem. I have tried to bring out some of the feelings within this scene.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Marsh Graveyard
Brilliant morning light warms the dew
Your hard rocks surround the gentle tree of pale red
Within the garden, slowly eaten alive
Petals fall and lie like the dead
Old memories you refuse to hide
Falling softly where others have bled
A sea of mourning conceals with high tide
Nature has danced their dance since they wed
No need for epiphany, their spirit is known
Haunting the earth with beauty hidden
To their fate no one is forbidden.
The Death of the Gravedigger
The Symbolist Movement
Symbolism was a movement that occurred at the end of the 19th century that originated in French poetry and art. Poets focused on their own existence and also explored various groups and countries for inspiration. They used their poems to express deep feelings and their poems gave life to the sensations of everyday subjects. Symbolists rejected conventions and gave their poems individuality. Naturalism and Realism are movements that had come before that Symbolism rebelled from. Those movements were very literal in everyday reality while Symbolism tried to capture the spirituality within. Charles Baudelaire was the earliest Symbolist poet. Baudelaire expressed the sorrow in his life through many of his poems. The work of Edgar Allan Poe influenced the movement. Baudelaire admired him and translated his work into French. An important aspect of Symbolist poems is their sound. The poets focused on the language and symbols when creating their poems. Many such as Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Verlaine had been writing in Symbolist style, but the term was established in 1885 by Jean Moréas. He wrote the Symbolist Manifesto and believed that poets should aim to find truth that could be found indirectly through poems. Symbolist poets argued to be seen as a new group. In the mid 1880s there was criticism that they were connected with the Decadent movement. This is what brought on Moréas’s Manifesto that defended the movement. The Symbolist poets were outside society and often lead tragic lives. Many turned to isolation, drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. By the end of the 19th century the Movement waned with the death of leading poets, such as Mallarmé. The Symbolist movement did not last long in
Work Cited
"French Symbolist Poetry ." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. 2009. eNotes. 1 Jun 2009
Holcombe , John. "Symbolist Poets." Textetc.com. 2007. 31 May 2009
"Symbolism (Arts)." Wikipedia. 29 May 2009. Wikipedia. 1 Jun 2009