ADVERTISEMENT | PUT YOUR AD HERE
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT | PUT YOUR AD HERE |
 *Image viewer provided by Web Gallery of Art. Find out more about Mallarme |
Stephane Mallarme (1842–1898)Mallarmé’s great importance is as the chief forebear of the symbolists; many poets and other writers of the
mid-1880s drew inspiration at the Tuesday evening gatherings where
Mallarmé expounded his theories. He held that the poet should
express the ideas of a transcendental world, that poetry should
evoke thoughts through suggestion rather than description, and that
it should approach the abstraction of music. Mallarmé’s language
defies traditional syntax and is frequently so obscure that it must
be read with commentary. His best-known poems are Hérodiade (1869),
L’Après-Midi d’un faune (1876; The Afternoon of a Faun), which
inspired a composition by Debussy, and Un Coup de dés jamais
n’abolira le hasard (1897; A Throw of the Dice Will Never Eliminate
Chance). Editions of Mallarmé’s poetry were published in 1887 and
1899, and a selection of prose, Divagations, in 1897. Mallarmé
earned his living by teaching English. The influence of his poetry
was particularly felt by Valéry. |