Non sum Qualis

• “Bought red mouth.”

  • does not care about this woman as he reduces her to a body part
  • suggests she is a prostitute
  • shows he is willing to use women
• “I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.”

  • Always an exclamation at the end of her name - creates a natural caesura so her name is paused on, which adds emphasis
  • simu
• “I cried for the madder music and for the stronger wine.”

  • craves the way she makes him feel
  • negative connotations - shouldn’t want it but he does
  • unhealthy coping strategies
• CRITIC (AO5)

  ”Dawson’s poems depict a world of grey shadows in which bright colours belong to a fleeting, lost existence.” - Stephanie Kuduk Welher
• Written during the 1890 Decadent movement which was full of excess and artificiality
• Written by Ernest Dowson who wrote a lot about love but never had any reciprocated. He led a troubled life of poetry, had problems with drugs and alcohol and was in love with a girl half his age which tormented him.
• ABACD rhyme scheme
• Unconventional love poetry form
• The 5th line of every stanza is shorter than the others