The Sign of the Swan: How French Symbolist Poetry Re-envisions Reality

Offers a fresh interpretation of French Symbolist poetics, showing how Mallarmé, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud used visionary, transformative language to challenge modern secular perceptions of reality and reveal the enduring power of poetry.

Despite intensive scholarly activity around its various protagonists, there is surprisingly little comprehensive attempt at critical interpretation in English of the French symbolist movement and its far-reaching purport. Most contemporary works on the topic ...