Books: Arthur Symons, Leading Poet of the English Decadence
by Sebastian Hayes
If
there was a single man who shaped the
English Decadent Movement of the Eighteen
Nineties, that man was Arthur Symons, editor
of the “Savoy” magazine, poet, critic and
translator and friend of Paul Verlaine whom
he introduced to the English public. But he is
now a forgotten figure. In this little book
Sebastian Hayes argues that Symons amply
deserves to be remembered for his musical and
deeply felt verse, his enthusiastic espousal
of the ideas of the French Symbolist movement
and the way in which he anticipated, and in
certain respects surpassed, the poets of the later
Imagist movement led by Ezra Pound and Amy
Lowell.
If
there was a single man who shaped the
English Decadent Movement of the Eighteen
Nineties, that man was Arthur Symons, editor
of the “Savoy” magazine, poet, critic and
translator and friend of Paul Verlaine whom
he introduced to the English public. But he is
now a forgotten figure. In this little book
Sebastian Hayes argues that Symons amply
deserves to be remembered for his musical and
deeply felt verse, his enthusiastic espousal
of the ideas of the French Symbolist movement
and the way in which he anticipated, and in
certain respects surpassed, the poets of the later
Imagist movement led by Ezra Pound and Amy
Lowell.