The symbolist stream was founded in the late 19th century in France. This literary stream 'encouraged writers to express their ideas, feelings, and values by means of symbols or suggestions rather than by direct statements'. As with almost all literary streams, this movement again was a reaction to the movements such as romanticism, realism and naturalism that were found in the years before this one came into being.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics defines symbolism as being 'the refinement of the art of the ambiguity to express the indeterminate in human sensibilities and in natural phenomena'. Furthermore, symbolist poetry is very lyrical. It does not make use of objective description whatsoever and it is very much anti-mimetic. The sound is very important as well: among its goals was to get as close as possible to music. Recurring themes in symbolist poetry are mystery, death, decaying beauty, melancholic landscapes and, most

One of the major themes in this poem is a love that is gone just as quick as it was found. The author speaks of a mysterious woman who passes him, and he obviously admires her. He drinks tenderness and pleasure out of her pale eyes. Then it becomes night and she goes away, although he does not want her to leave, because they will not follow the same roads.

The fact that he chose all these words in the first 8 lines was to create a mysterious setting, which is perfect to speak of the love and beauty that he loses when she (the woman from the eight lines) goes a different way.

"Ne te verrai- je plus que dans l'eternite", where I really feel that the whole last word should be stressed.

Syntax is in this poem, as in any other poem of great importance. Baudelaire creates an atmosphere of great mystery and illusion in this poem. The main cause of this is his choice of words. The street he finds himself in he speaks of as being 'assourdissante' ( deafening) and 'hurlait autour de moi': screaming around him. This is a very strong description, he feels as if he is being swallowed into the sounds of the street . Of course this description is not very realistic, because he portrays the street as being alive, but this is exactly what makes the meaning of the poem so clear.

"La rue assourdissant autour de moi hurlait

This is a symbolist poem because of several reasons. First of all because it is very subjective in its descriptions. Second of all there is no lyrical I- although the I-figure describes the woman and experiences love, he does not explicitly describes his feelings, he rather describes the woman. Thirdly there is a lot of mystery and illusion present in the descriptions of settings and in what is to happen with the woman after she leaves him. Lastly, the poem was written by the symbolist poet in the time and country of symbolist

Some common words found in the essay are:
Charles Baudelaire's, Dutch Furthermore, , Poetry Poetics, I- I-figure, stress- stress, symbolist poetry, rhyme scheme, stress stress-no, stress-no stress, 19th century france, stress- stress stress-no, d'une main fastueuse, douleur majestueuse, autour de, plus que dans, symbolist poem, century france, late 19th century, describes woman,
Approximate Word count = 1248
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)