SYMBOLISTS. The name of a class of writers which sprang up after 1880 notably in France and in connection with verse. The sym bolists regard symbolism as the expression of an idea by the introduction of a being or an object merely for the purposes of such expression. The characteristic means are the allegory, transposi tion, and allusion. The symbolists were in ef fect reactionists against realism. They concern themselves with general truths in contrast with actualities. They court erudition, adore the metaphysical and mysterious, and especially ex alt the magic power and charm of music. Identi fied with the influence of Wagner, they seek music in language and accordingly the sonorousness of words; they suggest but do not name. Dreams, visions, and mythological tales are their proper subjects, and lyricism their favorite form of poetic expression. In their aim to unify and blend the arts and the functions of the senses, the ex tremists among them, like Arthur Rimbaud, as sociated the vowels with colors, etc. The metri
cal reforms of the French Symbolists have re sulted in making French verse more free and large in its possibilities of effect, more subtle, in timate, and musical. The Symbolists, despite the vagaries which attend all new schools of lit erature and art, have left a permanent and de sirable mark. Their general influence has been for the exclusive, the refined, the delicate, and the mystic beauties of the supranatural. Their Terse has represented idealism, religious senti ment. a return to the ancient, and an inherent preference for solemn or fatalistic themes. Ver laine, Nallarme, and Maeterlinck are the most noteworthy of the French and Belgian Symbolists. Among Symbolist plays those of De Cnrel may be noted. Symbolism reaches also into the domain of contemporary painting. For a state ment of certain particular phases or develop ments of Symbolism, see DECADENTS.