ABSTRACT
Symbolism, although traceable in part to Edgar Allan Poe(1809-49) by way of Charles Baudelaire (1821-67), was by origin a French movement, but its influence on other literatures was early and profound. The movement had been named by Jean Moreas (1856-1910) in "Symbolism-a Manifesto" (1886), which argued that the new poetry was neither didactic nor descriptive. Suggestive rather than explicit, Symbolist poetry evoked what were understood to be primal ideas or truths through the subtle manipulation of cadence, music, and imagery. The effect was to suggest rather than to state.
