Context: Ernest Dowson

• Dowson was middle class, Educated at Oxford but left without a degree. He worked on writing whilst studying, drinking and socialising. He was part of an exclusively male club who tried to duplicate that of Paris' literary cafe. His mother and father died in close succession, and he, a drunken poet, died of alcoholism at 32.
• The modern scientific name for artichoke - Cynara Cardunculus - derives from the Greek mythological story of Cynara and how she was turned into an artichoke after being banned from Olympus.
• Origin of Cynara Cardunculus: Part one. The philandering Zeus who—on a visit to his brother Poseidon—spotted a gorgeous girl, Cynara, bathing on the beach. He fell instantly in love, seduced her, made her a goddess, and took her back with him to Mount Olympus.
• Origin of Cynara Cardunculus: Part two. Cynara, however, lonesome and missing her mother, soon took to sneaking home to visit her family. This duplicitous act so infuriated Zeus that—in a fit of temper worthy of Caravaggio—he tossed Cynara from Olympus and turned her into an artichoke.
• The title comes from Horace Odes book. There he discusses how an old love has become a constant obbsession.
• Artichoke: Ancient Greeks and Romans considered them a delicacy and aphrodisiac (Makes you feel sexual) and attributed to being effective in securing the birth of boys. 16th century - Artichokes were reserved only for men, women were denied pleasure because it was said to enhance sexual power.
• The poem was published in the Decadent period, and Artichokes, being a delicacy and flamboyant dish represented this period immensely.
• Dowson struggled with unrequited love, his most infamous circumstance was his attempt to attain marriage from an 11 year old girl whilst he was 23. She did not accept. What a weirdo.
• The poem was written in the decadent period (end of the 1900s) which obsessed over self-indulgence and hedonism.
• the poem was written in the Victorian era but specifically the end of the victorian era(The Decadent period) The poem epitomises this era as it details the self indulgence of pleasures like food and wine and also indulging in prostitution.
• The decadent period shook the victorian people for it's non-conformity to morality and instead perversity.