Ernest Christopher Dowson (2 August1867-23 February1900), an English poet who was associated with the Decadent Movement, was born at Lee, south-east of London. He attended Oxford University, but left before obtaining a degree. Ernest Dowson This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. ... 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The English people are an indigenous European ethnic group originating in the lowlands of Great Britain and today represent a fairly homogenous composite population descended from a combination of Germanic speaking Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians with Celts, Jutes, and Normans, with minor recent admixture with other European groups. ... Lee is a place in the London Borough of Lewisham in south-east London. ... The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which contains Big Ben London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
He was a member of the Rhymer's Club, which included W. B. Yeats and Lionel Johnson. He was also a frequent contributor to the literary magazines The Yellow Book and The Savoy. The Rhymers Club was a group of London-based poets, founded in 1890 by W. B. Yeats and Ernest Rhys. ... A 1907 engraving of Yeats. ... Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 - 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist and critic. ... This page is about the literary journal. ...
In 1891 Dowson fell in love with 12-year-old Adelaide "Missie" Foltinowicz, the daughter of a Polish restaurant owner. Adelaide is reputed to be the subject of his best-known poem, Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae. He pursued her unsuccessfully -- in 1893 she married a waiter in her father's restaurant, and Dowson was crushed. In 1895 his parents both committed suicide, and Dowson began to decline rapidly. He died in London of alcoholism (or some say of tuberculosis) at the age of 32. 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
Biography
Madder Music, Stronger Wine by Jad Adams (I.B. Tauris).
See also sections in: Madonnas and Magdalens - the origins and developments of Victorian sexual attitudes. London. Eric Trudgill. (Heinemann, 1976).
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Dowson's poetry, so carefully grounded in literature, philosophy, dialogues and commentary on other poets and writers, is often limited by relating it to a life constructed to suit the image of the decadent.
If Dowson and Herrick had wooed the same mistress, there would be little doubt of her choice."(5) In other words, Dowson is blamed for not being a Romantic or a Metaphysical, for writing poems of love that would not convince a beloved to succumb to him, that cannot fulfill realistic, extra-aesthetic, goals.
For Dowson, the poetry of unrequited love allows the ennobling expression of emotions while denying the fatuousness of fulfillment: this approach, when applied to other aspects of life and poetry, creates a closed system in which all fulfillment, satisfaction, or achievement, must always be desired but never be achieved.
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