ENGLISH - Non sum - Ernest Dawson

• What’s the rhyme scheme in this poem?

  ABACBC - shows how the speaker and Cynara are permanently connected but also seperate from each other.
• What’s the form of the poem?

  • unconventional
  • unique
  • 4 stanzas - each 6 lines
  • 5th line of stanza shorter than others
  • regular - pleasurable when there is repetition - represents cyclical and predictable nature of the speakers memories of Cynara
• Historical context

  • Victorian england was prosperous and conservative
  • Divide between rich and poor
• Literary context

  • Dawson was in love with someone half his age
• About Ernest Dawson

  • Little money
  • Alcoholic
  • died age 32 (tuberculosis)
  • wrote about passion and love
  • had no love himself
• What type of poem is it?

  • a descendant poem
  • fascination with excess and indulgence
• What is meant by “lost lillie’s” ?

  A calm alliteration which shows loss and grief
• What is meant by “there fell thy shadow, Cynara!” ?

  Metaphor- shows how Cynara appears as a shadow which connotes darkness and unconscious mind
• What does it mean by “i am desolate and sick of an old passion yea hungry for the lips of my desire” ?

  Hyperbole- powerful and animalistic
• What does it mean by “i have been faithful to thee, Cynara in my fashion!” ?

  Continued throughout the poem - shows how Cynara is an ongoing thought within Dawsons mind
• What’s the main A05 view?

  “Dawson‘s poem does not depict a minutely observed, artificial beauty”

  • Cynara under described as well as prostitute
  • interesting as Dawson writes “La Belle Dame” and says “she walks in with beauty”
  • Cynara is presented in shadowy form - could be her presence the speaker mourns and not her beauty which is seen as mature love
• How does the poem relate to the descendant period?

  Perversity- speaker unable to banish the memory of Cynara

  “i was desolate and sick of an old passion” - perverse pleasure when thinking of Cynara when he is with another women

  ”bought red mouth” adds to descendant atmosphere of the poem

  Love of excess - poet recounts with pride shows excessive emotionalism and behaviour in attempts to remove Cynara from memory