Stéphane Mallarmé, a French poet, became one of the most important masters of
French symbolism, a nineteenth-century movement in poetry that stressed
impressions and moods rather than descriptions of reality (Online). The poetry
of Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, and others strongly
affected Mallarmé’s writing (Online). He used symbolism to represent human
emotions to make his poems unclear, thus avoiding direct communication with his
readers (Online & World Book 110,111). Mallarmé was born in Paris on March
18, 1842 (Online). After his mother died when he was seven years old, his
grandmother became his parental role model. His education included upper-class
boarding schools where he often felt out of place because of his middle class
background. When he was fifteen, the death of his younger sister, Maria, greatly
influenced his poetic development. He turned from Romantic lyricism to much more
morbid subjects like Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal. In 1860, he received his
baccalaureate degree from a “lycee” in Sens. After an apprenticeship in the
Registry’s office, in 1862 he had his first sonnet published in Le papillon, a
literary journal. In 1862 Mallarmé married Maria Gerhard and became a teacher
in Tournon. The difficult duties of teaching often interrupted his poetic work
and thoughts. Although his students made fun of him, Mallarmé was not
discouraged and continued his writing. After translating Edgar Allan Poe’s
English poems into French, Mallarmé’s chief influence became Poe rather than
Baudelaire. He began to compose long imaginative poems and a prose poem called
Herodiade, the biblical story of Salome who caused John the Baptist’s murder.
Then he wrote his best-known poem L’Après-midi d’un faune (Afternoon of a
Faun), which explores the difference between reality and fantasy (World Book
110,111). After moving to Paris in 1875 and becoming a teacher at College
Rollin, Mallarmé began to associate with such famous French poets as Theodore
de Banville, Paul Verlaine, and Gustave Kahn (Online). These and others visited
him on Tuesday evenings (les mardis), and these poets became known as les
mardistes. Mallarmé spoke about using words as symbols and was considered an
oracle. He became known as the “Master of Symbolism” because of the great
effect he had on the poets of his age. To honor his colleagues, he later wrote
Toast funebre and “Le tombeau d’Edgar Poe” (“The Tomb of Edgar Poe”),
a poem telling of Poe’s “eternal genius” despite his sad life. This poem
is one of the most often quoted poems in French literature. In 1869, Mallarmé
started but did not complete Igitur: ou, la folie d’Elbehnon, twelve prose
fragments of different lengths (Online). Classified as a story, a prose poem,
and a drama, Igitur did not appeal to feelings but to the intelligence of the
reader. It shows his lifelong preoccupation with death, infinity, fantasy, and
absence. Despite Mallarmé’s requests to dispose of his Igitur notes at his
death, his son-in-law, Dr. Bonninot, tried to reorganize the prose fragments and
published them in 1925. In his final work Un coup de des jamais n’abolira le
hasard (A Throw of the Dice Never Will Abolish Chance), Mallarmé showed his
interest in musical verse form and set his words in different typefaces to
illustrate visually the subject of the poem and to stress the unity of thought
and sound. Mallarmé thought that one should not change or paraphrase the
language of a poem (Americana 143). He believed that sacred things are
surrounded in mystery and that poetry has secrets that should be protected, just
as religion does. According to Mallarmé, poetry is not like music because the
latter cannot be understood by all. To this poet, the silences in a poem are
just as important as the words. He also thought that the reason for writing
poetry is the creation of poetic language; therefore, poetry itself is the
subject of all poems. Although Mallarmé tried to develop a “Grand Oeuvre,”
he spent so much time and energy thinking about the true nature of poetry that
he was unable to write this work (Online). He sometimes suffered from depression
and lack of creativity due to his changing poetic intentions, his dislike for
instant pleasure in literature, and his insistence that the reader himself
search for the symbolic meaning in poetry. His most important contribution is to
the Symbolist Movement and modern poetry, for it shows his feeling that what can
not be explained in poetry is able to be understood through exact symbolic
language. Stéphane Mallarmé has had great influence on twentieth century
poetry, although his own poetry is limited (Collier’s). His attitudes,
theories, and the wholeness of his personality have greatly influenced many
modern day poets. On September 9, 1898, Stéphane Mallarmé died at Valvins.
“Toute l’âme résumée ... ” is a poem written by Stéphane Mallarmé and
published in 1895. This poem’s central idea is to value and appreciate those
qualities or things that are constant, not those that drift away and change like
the smoke of a cigar. These lines: “Exclus-en si tu commences Le réel parce
que vil Le sens trop précis rature Ta vague littérature” illustrate that
Mallarmé develops the theme well because of the vagueness and one’s inability
to completely understand the soul. The soul is something indescribable by
ordinary words and language; thus Mallarmé, the master of Symbolism, uses
highly symbolic language throughout the poem. Mallarmé successfully creates the
poem’s mood, one of reflectiveness, pensiveness, and spiritually through the
sensory images of fire, ashes, and smoke. This line: “Toute l’âme résumée”
and the reference to the soul cause one to contemplate while “quelque cigare
brûlant” and the reference to the cigar remind one of a peaceful and tranquil
atmosphere associated with a relaxing smoke. Stéphane Mallarmé uses examples
of metaphors and symbolism to create the meaning of the poem. “Quand lente
nous l’expirons (l’âme) dans plusieurs ronds de fumée abolis en autres
ronds” is an extended metaphor; when Mallarmé says that we exhale the soul,
he actually means the living of one’s life. The rounds of smoke come and go
abolished in other rounds; Mallarmé suggests through this line the importance
of each day because of the shortness of life. “Que la cendre se sépare”
shows the symbolism of ashes representing the body after death. Just as ashes
are left behind after the smoke of a fire, so is the body left behind after the
soul departs. Mallarmé uses an implied metaphor of smoke representing the soul
which is exhaled in smoke rings. As smoke rings can change, so can the soul
change. The withdrawal of the ashes is another implied metaphor of the death of
someone. The final use of symbolism is “De son clair baiser de feu.” The
kiss of fire is represented as eternal life and life at the beginning when both
the body and soul are united. The fuming cigar also is like Mallarmé’s
writing style in which “each word becomes alight, burns, and transmits the
fire” (Chiari 143) as each word flows into the next. This lyric poem is a
sonnet consisting of four stanzas (4,4,4,2) and fourteen lines. Written in meter
verse with seven syllables per line, the rhyme scheme is “rime Croisée” (abab,
cdcd, efef, gg). Mallarmé’s concrete words include “ronds de fumée, cigare,
la cendre, et de feu” while his positive connotative words consist of “l’âme
et le chœur des romances.” Mallarmé writes “Toute l’âme résumée..."
concisely using suggestive, rather than clear images. “Toute l’âme résumée..."
is difficult to understand and must be carefully re-read time and time again. Stéphane
Mallarmé forces his readers to interpret his vague poems, such as this one,
which is full of unclear symbolism. This poem makes the reader ponder about the
evolution of the soul. The poem is good and lasting because of its meaning which
is to take advantage of what is here now.

BibliographyChiari, Joseph. Symbolism from Poe to Mallarmé. New York: The MacMillan
Company, 1956, p.143. “Mallarmé, Stéphane.” Collier’s Encyclopedia.
Volume 15. “Mallarmé, Stéphane.” Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 18. pp.
177-178. “Mallarmé, Stéphane.” The World Book Encyclopedia. Volume 13, pp.
110-111. Online. Internet. March 17, 1999.