Symbolist writers aimed to convey the various aspects of an individual's inner life. They emphasized personal mental impressions, internal moods, delicate emotional states, and spiritual feelings as a counter to the nineteenth-century's emphasis on objective, external, and concrete realities perceived through rational scientific methods. Their imagery often illustrates states of mind, imagination, the human psyche, and dreams. For instance, Huysmans’s symbolist novel Against the Grain tells the story of a man who secludes himself in a country house to avoid human interaction, focusing on the intricate subjective perceptions of the hypersensitive protagonist in isolation. Many symbolist poems, especially those by Rimbaud, capture the inner world of a child, depicting childhood impressions, perceptions, and imaginative flights.

Numerous symbolist writers use journeys, voyages, or quests as metaphors for exploring the depths of the individual's inner consciousness. Baudelaire's poem "Le Voyage" ("The Voyage") portrays a journey as a symbol for the search for life's meaning and fulfillment. Rimbaud, who penned many of his significant works while traveling with Verlaine, often emphasizes symbolic journeys in his poetry, depicting travel as a metaphor for a journey into the realm of imagination. For instance, "Le Bateau ivre" ("The Drunken Boat"), one of Rimbaud's most renowned poems, tells the story of a boat journey as a metaphor for an internal exploration into the individual's mind. Verlaine also composed several poems inspired by his travels with Rimbaud.

The leading symbolist poets were predominantly men, and their poems frequently delve into the conflict in their lives between the sensual attraction to women and the spiritual idealization of women. These themes are explored in the opening section of Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, where three cycles of love poetry are linked to three different women with whom Baudelaire had relationships during his lifetime. Baudelaire’s poem “The Head of Hair” centers on the sensual allure of a woman’s hair. Additionally, symbolist poets aspired to achieve spiritual ideals through their love poetry, viewing beauty as an abstract spiritual ideal only suggested through physical beauty. Mallarmé described this notion as the ideal flower that does not exist in any tangible bouquet. However, not all symbolist poetry was inspired by heterosexual relationships. The love poetry of Verlaine and Rimbaud was frequently influenced by their own homosexual relationship.

Symbolist literature frequently delves into spiritual and religious themes. Symbolist authors explored these themes in diverse ways. A significant portion of Baudelaire’s poetry examines the Catholic notion of sin and the character of Satan. The section titled “Revolt” in Flowers of Evil highlights Baudelaire’s internal conflict with the temptation of Satanism. In contrast, Rimbaud consistently critiques traditional religious doctrines while attempting to convey spiritual ideals. Meanwhile, Verlaine, who had a religious epiphany during his time in prison, expressed his Catholic beliefs through his poetry collection Wisdom. Blok is renowned for his poetic ballad The Twelve, which portrays the adventures of a group of revolutionary rebels as a Christian allegory.

The experiences of modern urban living are a crucial aspect and a core theme in symbolist poetry, which marked the shift to modern literature in the twentieth century. In his "Parisian Tableaus," a segment of Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire penned some of the earliest poetry portraying nineteenth-century cityscapes and urban decay. His renowned poem “The Swan” conveys the sense of alienation brought about by life in the modern metropolis.