Liliev's poem

Liliev appeared in our literature at the beginning of the century, almost simultaneously with Debelyanov. At that time, Yavorov was experiencing a tragic collapse of his youthful ideals. His anxious, restless spirit was wandering in the nightmarish abysses of disbelief. He had become very susceptible to the pessimistic worldview of the symbolist aesthetic. Spontaneously, by a necessary inner command, the great poet paved the way for a belated literary fashion, which the poets of the then young generation - Nikolay Liliev, Dimcho Debelyanov, Lyudmil Stoyanov, Theodore Trayanov, Geo Milev, Hristo Yassenov and others - got carried away. In his homeland - France, this school took shape in the 1980s. It is well known that symbolism is based on the most extreme subjectivism, the hopeless philosophy of a tired, already worn-out psyche. It would be, however, a gross vulgarization to consider that the representatives of symbolism are conscious ideologists of the bourgeoisie and supporters of its order. For the most part they are people with high spiritual impulses, horrified and disgusted by the vulgarity and predatoryness surrounding them, who seek salvation in the world of chimeras, of self-absorption. Symbolism, however decadent in its essence, is a negation of guildsmanship, but a negation that is passive and harmless to the dominant system.