What is symbolist poetry?

Answer 1

Symbolism, as a base definition as a literary term, means using s physical object, person, or place to represent a abstract idea or emotion. For instance, in Othello, Desdemona's handkerchief is generally considered a symbol to represent chastity or loyalty or perhaps even jealousy. Now keep in mind, symbols are up for interpretation, so in almost all situations, symbols may have more than one meaning, or have variations of meanings depending on who or even how you are reading the text. And just about anything could be used as a symbol, which is why paying attention to how the author/poet stresses or describes a particularly object/person/place, (especially if the potential symbol is mentioned multiple times or is given particularly strong emphasis by the writer) can help us find our own deeper meaning to that symbol, and thus add depth to your overall experience with the piece of writing.

Now this all holds true for poetry as well. In fact symbolism has played a major roll in poetry more or less as far back as ancient civilizations. Many argue that mythology in and of itself was simply a form of symbolism used by ancient storytellers. Many forms of poetry, including Romanticism, the Imagists who worked along side Ezra Pound, and even ancient classic Chinese and Japanese forms, relied heavily on symbolism in order to convey deeper meaning and to draw comparrisons/contrasts to older works. And some of these symbols carried over, not only from one poet to the next but from one generation to the next. For instance, in many forms of Renga and Haiku (classic Japanese forms of poetry) cherry blossoms are commonly see as symbols, representing mortality or the temporal non-permanence of reality. And as each poet through out generations used this common symbols, it grew in meaning and depth, with each use offering a unique twist that drew upon all of that symbols past.

In short though, symbolism in poetry works more or less as it does in other forms of literature. Symbols are just a way for a poet to give an abstract idea or feeling a more concrete and descriptive meants for their writers to connect and experinace said abstract concepts.