The Poetry of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and French Symbolism

Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) became famous at the age of sixteen for poetry and lyrical drama of almost uncanny facility and beauty. Yet he ceased to write lyric poetry almost completely in the early 1900s. This study suggests that his early interest in the works of the French Symbolists - above all of Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Mallarm - had an inhibiting effect on his own poetry and contributed to the famous 'Chandos crisis' in 1902.