Ernest Dowson

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Portrait of Ernest Dowson

Ernest Christopher Dowson (born August 2, 1867 in Lee , London , † February 23, 1900 in Catford , London) was a poet of English symbolism .

Life

Ernest Christopher Dowson was born on August 2, 1867 in Lee, a district in south-east London. Ernest Dowson spent most of his childhood and youth outside of England . His father lived mostly in France and on the Riviera . In 1886 he came to Queen's College in Oxford , studied there for about a year and a half and then went to London. Except for the last years of his life, he spent most of his time in France.

Dowson died on February 23, 1900 in Catfort (south-east part of London). He was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Lewisham . Dowson's character was split, a delicate man, polite, elegant, selfless - on the other hand, often under the influence of alcohol, downright insane and utterly insane. His father had left him an old dock in the east end of London, where he lived in a dilapidated house and was a frequent guest in the many taverns on the docks. This life in the pubs and poor areas continued in Paris , Dieppe and Brussels . His health was deteriorating and by the time he returned to London he was near death. He lived extremely poor and withdrawn - in the last weeks of his life a friend took him in a poor dwelling.

Dowson converted to Catholicism in 1898/90 - the reason was probably an unhappy love affair. The love for a girl (Adelaide Foltinowicz, called "Cynara" in his verses), to whom he wrote most of his verses, remained unfulfilled.

Poetic work

Dowson left a little poetic work. In 1896 the small volume of poetry Verses appeared , followed by the fantasy The Pierrot of the Minute and in 1899 the volume of poetry Decorations . In the poem Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae (1896) he coined the metaphor gone with the wind later taken up by Margaret Mitchell . In addition to these poems, he wrote a small volume with short stories, Dilemmas, Stories and Studies in Sentiment . He wrote two novels with Arthur Moore. He translated by Voltaire Pucelle and by Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos Les Liaisons dangereuses .

Aubrey Beardsley illustrated Dowson's Pierrot of the Minute . Dowson was held in high regard by Stefan George . He dedicated his poem July Melancholy to him . He translated three of his poems into German and counted him among the most important European poets of his time. Arnold Schönberg set the poem Seraphita to music . In 1907 Frederick Delius set several poems to music in his cycle Cynara .

Works

First editions

  • Comedy of mask. Novel. Together with Arthur Moore. 1893.
  • Dilemmas, Stories and Studies in Sentiment. Elkin Mathews, 1895.
  • Verses. Cover drawing by Aubrey Beardsley. Leonard Smithers. 1896.
  • The Pierrot of the Minute, a Dramatic phantasy in one act. Artist Jewelry: Aubrey Beardsley. Leonard Smithers, 1897.
  • Adrian Roe. Novel. Together with Arthur Moore. 1899
  • Decorations: in verse and prose. Binding drawing: Althea Gyles. Chiswick Press, 1899.

Other editions (selection)

  • The Poetical Works of Ernest Christopher Dowson. Ed. with an Introd. by Desmond Flower. London: Cassell and Co. and John Lane The Bodley Head, 1934.
  • The Letters of Ernest Dowson / coll. & Ed. By Desmond Flower. Rutherford [u. a.] . Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1967
  • Ernest Dowson, Poems - Bilingual. Edited, translated, with an introduction and comments by Frank Stückemann, Mattes Verlag Heidelberg, 2015.

literature

  • Newman Flower: Ernest Dowson at Oxford. The Nineteenth Century and After , vol. CIII, p. 560-566. London: Constable & Company, 1928
  • Walter Kral: Ernest Dowson. A Contribution to the History of English Symbolism . Prague: Univ., Phil. F., Diss., 1936

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wikiquote English , accessed October 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ In: The Carpet of Life and the Songs of Dream and Death. 9th edition, Berlin: Georg Bondi, 1920. Cf. also: Dowson - George. An approach / Kordula Kral. Berlin, 2011.
  3. ↑ Contemporary poets. Transferred by Stefan George. Vol. 1: Rossetti, Swinburn, Dowson, Jacobsen, Kloos, Verwey, Veraeren. 3rd ed., Berlin: Bondi, 1923. Contained poems by Dowson: To a Bedlam, Seraphita, Hefe.
  4. ↑ 4 songs for voice and orchestra. I. Seraphita. In: Pierre Boulez. Schoenberg. Gurre Lieder, 4 Songs, op.22. Sony Classical, 1975/82.
  5. ^ IMSLP , accessed October 16, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Dowson, Ernest
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dowson, Ernest Christopher (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Lee , London
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1900
Place of death Catford , London