Symbolist poets were late 19th-century writers, first associated with French poetry, who rejected plain description and direct statement in favor of suggestion, atmosphere, and symbolic imagery. Rather than naming feelings or ideas outright, they tried to evoke them through musical language, recurring images, and elusive connections between things. Major figures include Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Jules Laforgue.
Example
The clock leans back in the blue-lit room,
its silver hands asleep;
a single moth circles the lamp,
like a thought too near to keep.