Arthur Symons

Symons, Arthur (sĭmˈənz) [key], 1865–1945, English poet and critic. A leader of the symbolists in England, Symons interpreted French decadent poetry to the English through translations, criticism, and his own imitative poems. He was editor of the Savoy (1896) until a period of insanity, movingly described in his Confessions (1930), incapacitated him from 1908 to 1910. After that time he was forced to live very quietly. His chief critical work is The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899); others are The Romantic Movement in English Poetry (1909) and studies of Baudelaire, Blake, and Rossetti. His poetry includes Days and Nights (1889), Poems (1902), and Love's Cruelty (1923).

See biography by K. Beckson (1987); studies by J. M. Munro (1969) and L. W. Market (1987).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.