has been adapted into children's books and films. The phrase “the bluebird of happiness” originates from this beloved story. Maeterlinck received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911 and passed away from a heart attack on May 6, 1949, in Nice, France.

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898)

Stéphane Mallarmé was a pioneering figure in the symbolist movement and had a significant impact on poetry in the 19th and 20th centuries. Deeply inspired by Baudelaire’s poetry, Mallarmé developed the foundational principles of Symbolism. He was born on March 18, 1842, in Paris, France. His mother died when he was only five, and by age twenty-one, he had also lost his sister and father. These early encounters with death likely influenced the profound sense of loss in his later works. Mallarmé worked as a teacher, editor, and translator while crafting his poetry. His work L’Après-midi d’un faune (1876; The Afternoon of a Faun) is a landmark in symbolist poetry. Mallarmé hosted a weekly Tuesday-evening salon in his Paris apartment, which became a hub for intellectual exchange in the symbolist movement. He was dedicated to formulating and sharing the theoretical underpinnings of Symbolism. In his poetry, Mallarmé sought to explore the connection between everyday life and an ideal world of beauty and perfection that transcends reality, which he described as the ideal flower absent from all bouquets. Mallarmé died on September 9, 1898, in Valvins, France. His major poetic works are compiled in the collections Vers et prose (1893) and Poésies (1899), while his literary essays are gathered in the volume Divagations (1897; Wanderings).

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)

Arthur Rimbaud was a pioneering poet in the symbolist movement and significantly shaped modern poetry. Born on October 20, 1854, in Charleville, France, Rimbaud ran away to Paris three times during his teenage years. On one of these escapades, he took part in the 1871 Paris Commune rebellion. However, he became disenchanted with the brutal suppression of the Commune and decided to dedicate himself to poetry instead of political endeavors. Influenced by Baudelaire, Rimbaud, along with poets like Mallarmé and Verlaine, crafted his unique style. In 1871, he sent some of his poems to Verlaine, who was so taken with them that he invited Rimbaud to Paris and hosted him for several months. While in Paris, Rimbaud mingled with many key literary figures but often alienated them due to his crude behavior. Despite this, he and Verlaine, who was married at the time, began a well-known homosexual relationship marked by intense passion and volatility. During the early 1870s, Rimbaud traveled with Verlaine to London and Brussels, where he composed the prose poems later published in Les illuminations (Illuminations). Their tumultuous relationship climaxed in 1873 when Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the wrist. Following this incident, Rimbaud returned to his family home in France and completed his prose poetry collection, Une saison en enfer (1873; A Season in Hell). In 1875, Rimbaud saw Verlaine for the last time, leaving him with the manuscript for Illuminations, which Verlaine later published in 1886. Rimbaud spent much of his remaining years traveling globally, distancing himself from Paris's literary circles. His poetic career spanned from around age sixteen to twenty-one. In February 1891, Rimbaud returned to France to seek cancer treatment, but he passed away on November 10, at thirty-seven years old.

Paul Verlaine (1844–1896)

Paul Verlaine was a key figure in establishing the symbolist movement. Born on March 30, 1844, in Metz, France, Verlaine began mingling with prominent literary figures like Mallarmé, Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, and Anatole France in 1862. He married in 1870, but his relationship was soon disrupted by Rimbaud in 1871, with whom Verlaine embarked on a passionate and stormy romance that lasted several years. In 1872, he left his wife to travel with Rimbaud to London and Brussels, focusing on his poetry during this time. In 1873, a dispute in Brussels led Verlaine to shoot Rimbaud in the wrist, resulting in a two-year prison sentence. While incarcerated, he published his acclaimed poetry collection Romances sans parole (Songs without Words) in 1874. His 1880 volume Sagesse (Wisdom) is also considered one of his significant works. By the early 1880s, Verlaine had gained recognition as a leading symbolist poet, notably for his poem “Art poétique.” His 1884 work Les poètes maudits (The Accursed Poets) features short biographical sketches of six poets, including Mallarmé and Rimbaud. In 1886, Verlaine was responsible for the publication of Rimbaud’s Illuminations. When Verlaine passed away from pulmonary congestion on January 8, 1896, in Paris, he was celebrated as a major nineteenth-century French poet and a pioneer of the symbolist movement.