Best Symbolist Poems

THE LADY OF SHALOTT
mirror-images were her curse
so wove her pictures in reverse
LA BELLE ISEULT
William's 'stunner',became wife Jane
but for painting,he found no acclaim
MADONNA
Madonna's personna
a single reflection-
gives...

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ENTICEMENT
Allurement,in her look
come hither-Franz Stuck
JUDITH
with Judith 1
Klimt's fame had began
TEMPTATION
Temptation's face
with whispers so ofteensnare + enlace
NIMIANE
Merlin knew the future and the past
but she lulled him...

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battle of the sexes


~~MONA LISA SMILE
Picture Oil painting worthwhile 
Leonardo DA Vinci, look out!
What is she really smiling about?

(((The popularity of the Mona Lisa increased...

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Renee Vivien Translations


Song
by Renée Vivien
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When the moon weeps,
illuminating flowers on the graves of the faithful,
my memories creep
back to you, wrapped...

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These are my modern English translations of sonnets by the French poet Stephane Mallarme.

The Tomb of Edgar Poe
by Stéphane Mallarmé
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Transformed...

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...my paris begins with those early days as as a conscious flaneur I recall the couple seated opposite me on the metro when i was...

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Il pleure dans mon coeur (“It rains in my heart”)
by Paul Verlaine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It rains in my heart
As it rains on the...

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my paris begins with 
those early days 
as a conscious flaneur 
i recall the couple 
seated opposite me 
on the metro 
when i was still...

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Early days as a flaneur;
I recall the couple 
On the Metro
When I was still innocent 
Of its labyrinthine complexities;
Slim pretty white girl,
Clad head to toe...

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Demon (M. Vrubel)

The hour.
The hour of violet.
Who’s there above the violet
twilight flying?
It’s gnawing its flesh
and hits its shadow in the rocks.
It’s you, isn’t it?
The last...

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Excuse my rambling on so, 
                   ...

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A poet from France Stephane Mallarme
was always cool and so calm
by repute the foremost Symbolist
but his Livre* publication he missed.

*Mallarme never saw published his experimental...

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Spleen
by Paul Verlaine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The roses were so very red;
The ivy, impossibly black.

Dear, with a mere a turn of your head,
My despair’s...

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"The Three Ages of Woman," painted by
   the noted symbolist named Gustav Klimt;
from Austria, late-nineteenth century
   till early twentieth, he left...

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THE MUSE

I shall leave the city, the bustling town.
I shall walk to the outskirts of the wild plains, 
And drink from heaven mystic rains, 
Lying...

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