French poetry was a determinant influence in Darío's formation as a poet. In the first place, the romantics, particularly Victor Hugo. Later on, and in a decisive fashion, Darío was influenced by the parnassians: Théophile Gautier, Catulle Mendès, and José María de Heredia. Another decisive influence was the writer of prose and poetry and national hero of Cuba, Jose Martí. The final defining element of Darianian aesthetic is his admiration towards the symbolists, especially Paul Verlaine. Recapitulating his own poetic trajectory in the initial poem of Cantos de vida y esperanza (1905) Darío himself synthesized his main influences when he affirms that he was "strong with Hugo and ambiguous with Verlaine" ("con Hugo fuerte y con Verlaine ambiguo".)

In the section "Palabras Liminares" of Prosas Profanas (1896) he had already written a paragraph that reveals the importance of French culture in the development of his literary work:

The old Spaniard with a white beard points towards a series of illustrious portraits: "This one—he says—is the great Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, one-handed genius; this one is Lope de Vega, this one is Garcilaso, this one Quintana." I ask him for the noble man Gracián, for Teresa of Ávila, for the brave Góngora and the strongest of all, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas. Then I say: "Shakespeare! Dante! Hugo...! (and in my head: Verlaine...!)"
Then, when saying goodbye: "-Old man, it is important to say: my wife is from my land; my mistress is from Paris."

Los raros is an illustrative volume regarding literary tastes, which he published on the same year as Prosas profanas, and dedicated to briefly glossing some of the writers and intellectuals towards whom he felt profound admiration. Amongst those in the book we find Edgar Allan Poe, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Léon Bloy, Paul Verlaine, Lautréamont, Eugénio de Castro and José Martí (the latter being the only one mentioned who wrote their literary work in Spanish.) The predominance of French culture is more than evident. Darío wrote: "Modernism is nothing more than Spanish verse and prose passed through the fine sieve of the good French verse and the good French prose." Setting aside his initial stage, before Azul..., in which his poetry owes a great deal to the great names of 19th-century Spanish poetry, such as Núñez de Arce and Campoamor, Darío was a great admirer of Bécquer. Spanish themes are well represented in his work, already in Prosas profanas and, specially, after his second trip to Spain, in 1899. Conscious of contemporaneous Spanish decadence in politics and the arts (a preoccupation he shared with the so-called Generation of '98), he frequently was inspired by characters and elements of the past. Regarding authors in other languages, it is worth mentioning that he felt a profound admiration towards three writers from the United States: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.Extract the names of influencers on Ruben Dario's poetry
Victor Hugo
Théophile Gautier
Catulle Mendès 
José María de Heredia
Jose Martí
Paul Verlaine
Edgar Allan Poe
Villiers de l'Isle Adam
Léon Bloy
Lautréamont
Eugénio de Castro
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walt Whitman