First published in 1958, this collection introduced an indispensable corpus of western poetry to countless American students, Francophiles, and would-be poets, among them Patti Smith, whose Introduction to this edition testifies to its epochal impact on her own career. The poetic and cultural tradition forged by the symbolist poets featured herein -- Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Apollinaire, and others -- reverberated throughout the avant garde...