trend of Paranassian spirit within the Romanian Symbolist current. Within Poezia viitorului, Macedonski invoked as his models to follow some important or secondary Symbolist and Parnassian figures: Charles Baudelaire, Joséphin Péladan, Maurice Maeterlinck, Stéphane Mallarmé and Jean Moréas. In his review of Bronzes for Mercure de France, Pierre Quillard remarked the "irreproachable" technique, but criticized the poet for being too indebted to both Baudelaire and Leconte de Lisle; other Symbolist figures whom Macedonski is known to have borrowed from are José María de Heredia and Iwan Gilkin. While undergoing this transition, to what linguist Manuela-Delia Suciu argues is a mostly Parnassian phase, Macedonski was still referencing Naturalism, and considered it compatible with Symbolism. With the adoption of such tenets came a succession of Symbolist poems, where the focus is on minutely-observed objects, usually items of luxury, partly reflecting themes he had explored in the Naturalist stage. Commenting on them, Tudor Vianu argues that no such works had ever been produced in Romanian literature up until that moment. In his Ospățul lui Pentaur ("The Feast of Pentaur"), the poet reflected on civilization itself, as reflected in inanimate opulence. The motif was also developed in descriptive prose fragments later grouped in Cartea de aur, collectively titled nuvele fără oameni ("novellas without people") and compared by Călinescu with the paintings of Theodor Aman. Also during that stage, Macedonski was exploring the numerous links between Symbolism, mysticism and esotericism. Earlier pieces had already come to explore macabre themes characteristic for an early branch of Symbolism. Influenced by Maurice Rollinat, they include the somber Vaporul morții ("The Ship of Death") and Visul fatal ("The Fatal Dream"). Likewise, the piece titled Imnul lui Satan ("Satan's Hymn") was placed by critics in connection with Les Litanies de Satan (part of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal), but, Vianu argues, the source of Macedonski's satanic themes may have been lodged in his own vision of the world. This interest also reflected in his 1893 Saul, where Cincinat Pavelescu's contribution is supposedly minimal. Echoing satanic themes, Ernest Legouvé's dramatic version of the Medea myth (which Macedonski translated at some point in his life) and the classical work of Jean Racine, it shows the dark powers of political conflict intervening between the eponymous king and his ephebos-like protégé David, the latter of whom turns out to be the agent of spiritual revolution. ("August Night"), outlines a monistic belief probably inspired by