Ernest Dowson

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

Life

Ernest Christopher Dowson was born on August 2, 1867 in Lee, a district in south-east London. His childhood and youth spent Ernest Dowsen predominantly outside England. His father lived mostly in France and on the Riviera. In 1886 he came to the Queen 's College, Oxford, where he studied about one and a half years and then went to London. Until his last years he spent most of his time in France. Dowson died on 23 February 1900 in Catfort (south-eastern part of London ). He was buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery of Lewisham. Dowsons essence was split, a tender man, polite, genteel, selfless - on the other hand often under the influence of alcohol downright insane and completely insane. His father had left him an old dock in Ostend London, where he lived in a dilapidated house and was a frequent guest in the numerous taverns of the docks. This life in the pubs and poor areas continued in Paris, Dieppe and Brussels. His health worsened, and when he returned to London, he was already marked by the approaching death. He lived very poor and retired - in his last weeks of life, a friend took him up in a poor dwelling. Dowson joined 1898/90 to the Catholic faith - reason was probably an unhappy love affair. The love for a girl, to which he wrote most of his verses, remained unfulfilled.

Generic plant density

Dowson has left a little poetic work. Appeared in 1896, the small volume of poetry, verse, on the imagination The Pierrot of the Minute, and 1899, the volume of poems Decorations. In addition to these Versdichtungen he wrote a small volume of short stories, dilemmas, Stories and Studies in Sentiment. Together with Arthur Moore, he wrote two novels. He translated from Voltaire Pucelle and by Pierre -Ambroise - Francois Choderlos de Laclos Les Liaisons dangereuses. Aubrey Beardsley illustrated Dowsons Pierrot of the Minute. Dowson was highly appreciated by Stefan George. He dedicated his poem July melancholy. ( 1) He gave three of his poems into German and declared him one of the most important European poets of his time. ( 2) Arnold Schoenberg set to music the poem Seraphita. ( 3)

Works

First editions

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

Further issues (selection)

• The Poetical Works of Ernest Christopher Dowon. Ed. with at Introd. by Desmond Flower. Lonon: Cassell and Co. and John Lane The Bodley Head, 1934.
• The Letters of Ernest Dowson / coll & ed by Desmond Flower. Rutherford [ inter alia ]: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1967

Literature on Dowsen (selection)

• Walter Kral: Ernest Dowson. A contribution to the history of English symbolism. Prague:. Univ, Phil F., Diss, 1936

Comments

• Author
• Literature (19th century)
• Writers ( London)
• Born in 1867
• Died 1900
• Man