In the development of China's modernist poetry, symbolism poetry school is the first development stage. During the May 4th Movement, newspapers such as New Youth and Young China translated and commented on French symbolism poetry, and Wu Zhou and others also tried to write under its influence. From 65438 to 0925, the publication of Xiao Yu by Li Jinfa marked the birth of symbolism poetry in China. Subsequently, Wang, Mu, Feng Naichao, Hu Yepin, etc. He also created symbolic poetry, thus forming a school of symbolic poetry.
Why did the symbolism poetry tide form in the mid-1920s? First of all, after the ebb tide of the May 4th Movement, the whole social atmosphere was gloomy and dreary, which provided young people with an opportunity to go inward and express their personal sadness. Secondly, as far as the internal development requirements of poetry are concerned, it is also a subversion of the naivety and frankness of early new poetry. In the mid-1920s, the dispute between new poetry and old poetry has turned into a dispute between beauty and ugliness, and the rise of symbolism has its inherent rationality. It should be said that the symbolic poetry school has brought great imagination to the art of new poetry, which has made new poetry leap from the initial "children's songs" to the realm of pure poetry. Generally speaking, Li Jinfa's poems do not directly describe life, nor do they go straight. Instead, they express their inner feelings through symbolic images or hints. They often use the method of "far analogy" to open the distance of imagination and find the connection between unrelated things. For example, "My soul is the bell of the wilderness" ("mine") is about the loneliness and pain of the soul; "Life is as clear as your eye pupil" ("You love sunshine") and youthful vitality. This can really expand people's imagination and enhance readers' initiative. But it is precisely because of this that it hinders readers' understanding. For example, the poem "Writing an Image from the Inscription" is too long to connect in series. In addition, if we can't choose images well, we are prone to aesthetic disgust, such as "our life is too withered,/like a paddy field trampled by animals" (expression of time). It is precisely because of his grotesque metaphor and pursuit of mysterious atmosphere that he has the title of "poetic monster"
Influenced by Li Jinfa, the works of other symbolic poets are similar to his in poetry and wording. However, although symbolism poetry became a trend in a few years, it soon declined. The reasons are: firstly, the lack of digestion of Chinese and western poems, the failure to properly handle the relationship between western symbols and China's Bi Xing, and the mechanical copying of French symbolic poems, which invisibly form communication obstacles among readers; Second, language is not only divided into literate and vernacular, but also divided into Chinese and western languages, which undermines the consistency of language style. These are actually caused by the failure to handle the integration of China and the West. In addition, China society quickly moved from the silence in the mid-1920s to the upsurge in the 1930s, and the class struggle became increasingly fierce, which objectively excluded aestheticism with sentimental sentiment. Inspired by the society, the poet himself consciously threw himself into the fierce struggle, thus changing the literary taste. All these make symbolic poetry school unsustainable and decline.
However, after all, symbolic poetry school has made great contributions to the development of new poetry, and its advantages and disadvantages have also attracted the attention of future generations. Therefore, the emergence of "modernism" is logical.