1. Symbolism
Nicole Lally
Rachel Donlan
Brooke Armknecht

2. What is the symbolism literary movement
Definition: a loosely organized literary and artistic movement that originated with a group of French poets in the late 1850 to about 1900
Help to spread painting and the theatre and influenced the European and American literatures of the 20th century by being a transition between realism and modernism

3. symbolist poets
Symbolist illustrated personal states of consciousness using metaphorical language to symbolize from an eternal sense of life that they believed started from the five senses
They tried to write about man’s inner life and illustrate the mystery of existence through use of metaphors and images that helped pass along what the poet was thinking and hint at the dark reality

4. What does it represent
Represented the poets reaction to both realism and naturalism in literature which both thrived to represent nature and human society through objective reality

5. how they (the poets) influenced
The symbolist began the use of musical language, free verse, and changed the form of a prose poem to a more modern poem

6. StÉphane mallarmé
Born on March 18th, 1842, in Paris and died September 19th, 1898, in Valvins
He was a French poet and a leader of the Symbolist Movement in poetry
His mom died when he was 5 in August 1847, his younger sister Maria died in 1857, and his father died in 1863
Because of his tragic childhood, he expressed his longing for family through his poetry where he tried to turn away from reality and searched for another world
He acquired English in 1863 in London and became a school teacher for Provincial schools and then later in Paris

7. authors influence on time period
His early poems were influenced by Charles Baudelaire, who wrote about escaping reality, which Mallarmé could relate to
But, Baudelaire’s theme of escape was emotional and sensual and Mallarmé was more intellectual and he wanted to analyze the real world its relationships with reality
He devoted the rest of his life to putting his theory, that nothing lies beyond reality and in that nothingness lies perfect forms, into practice and what he called his Grand Oeuvre (great work)

8. poem Distress I don’t come to conquer your flesh tonight, O beast
In whom are the sins of the race, nor to stir
In your foul tresses a mournful tempest
Beneath the fatal boredom my kisses pour:
A heavy sleep without those dreams that creep
Under curtains alien to remorse, I ask of your bed,
Sleep you can savour after your dark deceits,
You who know more of Nothingness than the dead.
For Vice, gnawing this inborn nobleness of mine
Marked me, like you, with its sterility,
But shroud-haunted, pale, destroyed, I flee
While that heart no tooth of any crime
Can wound lives in your breast of stone,
Frightened of dying while I sleep alone.

9. questions Which one is a simile in the poem?
In your foul tresses a mournful tempest
Marked me, like you, with its sterility,
While that heart no tooth of any crime
Under curtains alien to remorse
2. Which theme is present in the poem?
Fear of death
Remorse
Escaping reality
no obvious theme

10. questions part 2 3. Which words show imagery in this stanza…
For Vice, gnawing this inborn nobleness of mine
Marked me, like you, with its sterility,
But shroud-haunted, pale, destroyed, I flee
vice; nobleness
gnawing; pale
pale; sterility
destroyed; gnawing

11. questions part 3 4. The symbolist period began with…
use of musical language, free verse, and changed the form of a prose poem to a more modern poem
use of musical language, free verse, and emotional compassion
free verse, dark language, and escape from reality
use of musical language, escape from reality, and dark language

12. questions part 4 5. What does Mallarmé not imply within the poem?
escape from reality
emotional darkness
living in a life of happiness
what he wishes his life

13. works cited
Chadwick, Charles. "Stephane Mallarme." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, Web. 26 Sept
Mallarme, Stephane.”Stéphane Mallarmé." Distress. ADKline.design, Web. 26 Sept
"Movement Origin." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, Web. 26 Sept