Decadents, Symbolists, & Aesthetes in America: Fin-De-Siecle American Poetry - An Anthology

by Edward Foster (Editor)

Poetry. Prose. DECADENTS, SYMBOLISTS, & AESTHETES IN AMERICA brings together works by various late nineteenth and early twentieth century American and Canadian poets: Conrad Aiken, Walter Conrad Arensberg, Ambrose Bierce, Gelett Burgess, Bliss Carman, Madison Cawein, Stephen Crane, Gertrude Hall, Richard Hovey, James Huneker, Ludwig Lewisohn, Stuart Merrill, Edgar Saltus, and Vance Thompson to give a fuller sense of literary life and values in fin-de-siecle America. American literature and life could be much more colorful (and European) than history commonly admits.

Contents
Fitz Hugh Ludlow -- from The Hasheesh Eater
Francis Grierson -- Modern Melancholy --
from Paul Verlaine --
from Stephane Mallarme --
Edgar Saltus -- from The Philosophy of Disenchantment --
Richard Hovey -- from Modern Symbolism and Maurice Maeterlinck --
Herodias (fragment) by Stéphane Mallarmé (trnsl.)
James Huneker -- Nosphilia: A Nordau Heroine --
The Remorse of the Dead by Charles Baudelaire (trnsl.)
Spleen by Charles Baudelaire (trnsl.)
Louise Imogen Guiney -- from Wilful Sadness in Literature --
Stuart Merrill -- from Paul Verlaine --
Vance Thompson -- M'lle New York --
from The Technique of the Symbolists --
Ambrose Bierce -- The Passing Show --
Sidney Lanier -- The Marshes of Glynn, from Sunrise --
Francis S. Saltus -- Graves, Arrack, the Bayadere, Confession --
James Gibbons Huneker -- "She lay in the Hall of the Mirrors ..." --
Charles G.D. Roberts -- The Stillness of the Frost --
Twilight on Sixth Avenue at Ninth Street --
Frank Dempster Sherman -- Witchery --
Bliss Carman -- Low Tide on Grand Pre --
Archibald Lampman -- The City at the End of Things --
Duncan Campbell Scott -- Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon --
Stuart Merrill -- Nocturne --
Anywhere out of the World by Charles Baudelaire (trnsl.)
Peace --
Little Poems about Love --
Vance Thompson -- "I am the fool of Pampelune ...," Symbols --
Richard Hovey -- The Faun, a Fragment, a Stephane Mallarme, to Swinburne --
Francis Viele-Griffin -- La Chevauchee D'yeldis and Au Tombeau D'Helene --
Madison Cawein -- Phantoms --
The Rosicrucian --
The Lust of the World --
Gelett Burgess -- The Purple Cow --
The Bohemians of Boston --
Vincent O'Sullivan -- Norman Cradle-Song --
At the Gate of the Year --
Sadakichi Hartmann -- Dawn-Flowers --
William Vaughn Moody -- Gloucester Moors --
The Quarry --
Edwin Arlington Robinson -- Another Dark Lady --
The Dark House --
George Sterling -- The Lords of Pain --
Stephen Crane -- from War is Kind --
George Cabot Lodge -- The Sonnets of Ishtar --
Amy Lowell -- Crepuscule Du Matin --
The Blue Scarf --
Aubade --
from Spring Day --
Trumbull Stickney -- Mnemosyne --
The Melancholy Year is Dead with Rain --
Be Still, the Hanging Gardens Were a Dream --
With Long Black Wings an Angel Standing by --
Wilbur Underwood -- Youth and Night --
Midsummer Night --
Walter Conrad Arensberg -- Voyage a L'infini --
The Afternoon of a Faun by Stéphane Mallarmé (trnsl.)
Adelaide Crapsey -- The Lonely Death --
The Warning --
Donald Evans -- As a Decadent Passes --
At the Wheel --
Love in Patagonia --
In the Gentlemanly Interest --
Sara Teasdale -- Sappho --
George Sylvester Viereck -- Charles Baudelaire --
The Haunted House, Gersuind --
Children of Lilith --
John Gould Fletcher -- from Irradiations --
from Sand and Spray --
Conrad Aiken -- from The House of Dust --
Samuel Greenberg -- Serenade in Grey --
Clark Ashton Smith -- The Eldrich Dark, White Death --
Gertrude Hall -- Colloque Sentimental by Paul Verlaine (trnsl.)
Ludwig Lewisohn -- A Song Without Words by Paul Verlaine (trnsl.)
The Sleeper of the Valley by Arthur Rimbaud (trnsl.)

Genres: Poetry

163 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Dedalus began their series of Decadence Anthologies from varied countries (The Dedalus Book of German Decadence: Voices of the Abyss, et. al.) I wondered whether there was going to be an American volume. Was there even a Decadent Literary movement in the United States? Well, as it turns out, yes and no...

As argued by rj krijnen-kemp in the article "Lilies Among The Thorns: An Overview Of American Decadence" in Wormwood no. 17, and further illustrated here, while there was a brief dalliance by American authors and poets with the fin de siècle, it never really amounted to much - more poetry than fiction - although the notorious reputation of the "French sickness" influenced a number of American writers for decades after the movement was dead in Europe. And, one must point out, we did contribute an inspirational forebear in Edgar Allan Poe, who made such an impression on Charles Baudelaire...

Now, Decadence holds a fascination for me but, as I've often noted, I'm not really "built" for poetry and while I'm wrestling with that in my further readings, my interest in Decadence lies mostly in the short fiction/novel realm. And this slim little volume is mostly full of poetry, with a few excerpts of prose (essays, satires, etc.) at the start. That's fine - I might have liked a nice excerpt from some Edgar Saltus novel - but I'm just interested in perusing this sampler and gleaning what I can.

As the introduction makes clear, American Decadence is positioned between the American Bohemian movement (which I really must explore - sounds like lots of hanging out in city cellar bars and drinking!) and the first manifestations of Imagist/Modernist poetry. It makes itself known mostly as work by educated, transcontinental authors/poets who either traveled to Europe or were aware of the changes occurring there and attempted to replicate the fin de siècle mood here (often to find themselves in conflict with the New England bluenose censors of art). As a subset, one can also see aspects of Emerson's transcendentalist/paganist current manifesting in some American "decadent" work. I particularly liked the side-note about how New York Bohemian authors invented a fake Decadent author, "Lingwood Evans," complete with a scandalous bibliography and backstory, whose fake exploits they could tout in their periodicals pages.

The prose work at the front is interesting. Excerpts from The Hasheesh Eater: Being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean by Fitz Hugh Ludlow record experiences of hashish visions (much like Baudelaire), with some solid musings on their inherent subjectivity (not able to be shared with those not *attuned,* and *that* even unlikely to those similarly drugged) and the experience of the world - literally EVERYTHING - reduced to symbols of great meaning and depth. Francis Grierson's essay on "Modern Melancholy" (from Modern Mysticism: And Other Essays) extols the "anti-dramatic" acting style of Yvette Guilbert (?) which typifies for him the disillusioned, exhausted, melancholic tone of the times. Also some essays on personal impressions of Paul Verlaine (as a poverty-stricken lover of language) and Stéphane Mallarmé (as a teacher of silence). An excerpt from the pessimistic The Philosophy of Disenchantment by Edgar Saltus follows - a clear-headed statement of Schopenhauerian disillusionment (might be interesting for some Thomas Ligotti readers). Next is an excerpt from Richard Hovey's MODERN SYMBOLISM AND MAURICE MAETERLINCK in which he defines Symbolism and discusses some of its manifestations. "Nosphilia: A Nordau Heroine" is a funny parody of Decadent excess by Richard Hovey (a man's degenerate wife becomes addicted to scents!). An excerpt from Louise Imogen Guiney's WILFUL SADNESS IN LITERATURE bemoans the modern trend of "melancholy expression without some uplifting parallel" in poetry ("the danger of expressing despondency is extreme" - praise to the men of letters who express gaiety). And Vance Thompson gives us a poetic ode to New York City ("M'lle New York") and discusses the technique of symbolism.

The poetry, as I've said, is something I have to take as I find it. I enjoyed the Ambrose Bierce ("The Passing Show" - the glorious, haughty rise and dismal fall of a city), Sidney Lanier ("The Marshes Of Glynn" about the soul-enriching aspects of bleak sea-marshes), Frank Dempster Sherman ("Witchery" - some musings on dusk),
Archibald Lampman ("The City At The End Of Things" - vision of a dream-like, mythical city of industry and mechanical repetition, and how it finds its doom in that same repetition), Vance Thompson ("Symbols", and an oddly evocative untitled piece - "I am the fool"), Richard Hovey ("Faun: A Fragment" - a statement of Bohemian, free-wheeling life & "To Swinburne" - a Paganistic proclamation), Gelett Burgess ("The Bohemians Of Boston And Their Ways: A Memory Of A Jacobean Craze" - a fun artifact of Bohemian Boston), Vincent O'Sullivan ("Norman Cradle-Song" - the tale of a sea-elf), Sadakichi Hartmann ("Dawn Flowers"), William Vaughn Moody (the powerful "Gloucester Moors"), Edwin Arlington Robinson (the haunting "The Dark House"), Stephen Crane ("War Is Kind" - Orientalist despair), George Cabot Lodge ("The Sonnets Of Ishtar" - declarations of a goddess's power), Amy Lowell ("The Blue Scarf" - musing on memory & fetish? & "Night And Sleep" from SPRING DAY - a contrasting reflection on city & rural/suburb life), Trumbull Stickney ("Mnemosyne" - a rumination on aging and change & "The Melancholy Year"), Wilbur Underwood ("Youth & Night") and a few others.

Not everything presented here worked for me, but it was all interesting.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important overview of an oft-neglected aspect of American literary history. I was taught that we went straight from the late Victorian Progressives to Modernism, with the Symbolists and Decadents being a strictly European, particularly French, movement. Indeed, the aesthetic of civilized ennui doesn't take quite as well in a country as young as the US, whose most "ancient" cities at this point were barely two hundred years old. Not surprisingly then, most of the pieces here are nature poems showing some New England Transcendental influence as well. As a dedicated urbanist who's never cared much for nature stuff, my personal taste honestly prefers the French writers, but it was nevertheless fascinating to see how American culture translated this very Old World temperament. Canadian poets Bliss Carman and Charles G.D. Roberts are also included.

Interestingly, also found in this volume are Ambrose Bierce and Clark Ashton Smith. Smith is better known today as a compatriot of H.P. Lovecraft, while Bierce is widely considered one of the foundational authors of the Weird genre Lovecraft popularized (another one is Robert W. Chambers, whom I am surprised was left out). This introduces some intriguing links between the Symbolists/Decadents and Weird Fiction/cosmic horror, particularly in the latter's recurring motifs of mad artists and hidden literary arcana. I would argue late contemporary Lovecraftian author W.H. Pugmire (1951-2019) represented a perfect fusion of the two, especially since he cited Oscar Wilde as a major inspiration. This definitely warrants further investigation.