The poems contained in this volume form part of a movement long
defunct--the Belgian Symbolist movement, an offshoot of that Belgian
renascence which produced so remarkable a body of great and noble
poetry. I cannot say, however, that perusal of the other poets of
the period will assist the reader to appreciate the volume in hand.
Eekhoud, Elskamp, Gilkin, Rodenbach, Verhaeren--none of these wrote
verse which could possibly be confounded with that of Maeterlinck;
twenty years ago the latter was no less original than he is to-day.
Many poets of the late nineteenth century were, without being
symbolists, affected by the Symbolist movement--a movement very loosely
named, since the actual symbolists connected with it could be counted
on the fingers of one hand. More particularly were they influenced by
the tendency to put music before matter, beauty before sense, which is
expressed by the so familiar lines of Verlaine:
De la musique avant toute chose,
Et pour cela préfère l'Impair,
Plus vague et plus soluble dans l'air,
Sans rien en lui qui pèse ou pose...
De la musique encor et toujours!
But musical as Maeterlinck's verses are, and rich in sheer beauty,
we are very seldom in doubt as to what the poet says, however little
we may in some cases understand what he means. His statements are
concrete and lucid; it is the inner meaning, the soul of his verse,
that sometimes threatens to elude us. Had this volume been cast upon
the late Victorian world this preface would perhaps have been longer.
But I cannot believe that these poems will present any difficulties
to a generation which has degustated such phenomena as Cubism and its
kindred manifestations.