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Poetry anthology: Non sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest…
Poetry anthology:
Non sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson
Context
Autobiographical - inspired by down's infatuation with an 11 year old girl called Adelaide and he proposed but she rejected him
He was part of the Decadent movement - hedonistic lifestyle - self indulgence, eroticism and rebellion which horrified the Victorians - three aspects of his poem belonging to the Decadent movement: Perversity, love of excess and egotism
Dowson began life in middle class but had a tragic life and lived in poverty - lost both parents due to an overdose and suicide - Dowson then became an alcoholic and died at 32
Wrote a lot about passion and love but never seemed to have a reciprocal lover himself
Summary
A decadent poem in which the speaker spends a night with a woman and he can't stop thinking about his past lover, Cynara
Structure
Unconventional form
- 4 stanzas made up of a sestet and 5th line of every stanza is shorter -
lyric
poem which has features of an
ode
Mostly
iambic hexameter
but also pentameter - unpredictable like Cynara's ghostly visitations
Rhyme scheme - ABACBC
- C rhyme is unconventional and may represent the intrusive way Cynara comes into the speaker's mind when he engages in romantic acts with someone else. Also the B rhymes being separated connects to the narrative of the poem as the speaker and Cynara are permanently connected but also separated
Links to other poems
Whoso list to hunt:
Both speaker's experience unrequited love that cannot be possessed
Cynara is emotionally unattainable and the deer is literally unattainable
Cyclical refrain in non sum shows the obsessive mental state and whoso uses an extended metaphor of hunting to reflect his mental and physical exhaustion
In non sum Cynara has lingering emotional and psychological control and in whoso the woman is owned by Caesar and is objectified and controlled externally
La Belle Dame:
Both male speakers are destroyed by love and suffer cyclical suffering and a haunting female presence - psychological torment and supernatural
Love is presented as inescapable and a destructive illusion
In non sum the suffering is self-inflicted as the speaker chooses to recognise his guilt while in La Belle the suffering is externally caused as the knight becomes a victim of the femme fatale
Link to Gatsby
Gatsby's unrequited love for Daisy and obsession with her and their past love links to the speaker in the poem who is obsessed with Cynara and is not happy without her
Destructive nature of passionate love is presented through the deaths of Myrtle, Wilson, Gatsby
The speaker's infatuation and desire for Cynara means he cannot move on and lives an unhappy life trapped by her
Questionable morals and decadent living in both Victorian and 1920s society
Distinction between Tom's infidelity and faithfulness to Daisy emotionally - Love is timeless and enduring
Cynara keeps coming back and the speaker can't move on with other women - he seems devoted to her
Gatsby tries to attract Daisy with superficial things like his lavish parties and wealth
The speaker uses superficial things like music and alcohol to numb emotional pain
Superficial pleasure cannot replace genuine love
Gatsby idealises Daisy and reality cannot match his dream and illusion
The speaker's idealised past love contrasts with his empty present
Gatsby's love leads to Gatsby's death and disillusionment
The speaker experiences emotional decay and exhaustion and loss of self
Both represent love as self-destructive and consuming
Quotes
'Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae'
- Taken from a great Latin poem written by Horace so there is a focus on the past - Translated it means 'I am not as I was under the reign of the good Cynara' - About not being able to let Cynara go and seeing her in everything he does but we discover he longs for a woman who is gone. Reign also implies she is superior (Adelaide) and it is unrequited love
'Last night, ah yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine there fell thy shadow, Cynara!'
- Archaic language and temporal marker suggests the speaker is stuck in the past - he is looking back to a previous life phase as 'yesternight' highlights how his mind is polluted by this woman. His old lover has a physical presence giving the reader a sense of strength of their once love. Metaphor as Cynara is a shadow connoting darkness and the unconscious mind - memory of her infiltrates everything
'Yea, I was desolate and bowed my head'
- Archaic 'yea' sounds biblical and the image of bowing his head has religious connotations - praying to God for his infidelity and dread. Ironic as in the next stanza there is a description of him in bed with a prostitute. Monosyllabic - acknowledging shame and guilt and inability to move on or his engagement in unloving sexual acts
'And I was desolate and sick of an old passion'
- 'Desolate' is dactylic with a stressed first syllable then two unstressed syllables - emphasis mid way rather than the end - dominant image of the poem. Semantic field of pain likens the speakers heartbreak as something akin to incurable disease. Sensational and emotive - makes her feel guilt and justifies his behaviour
'Cynara'
- Comes from Greek word for artichoke meaning hope and love. Speaker uses archaic language throughout the poem and a latin title to give a sense of time that has faded and been forgotten - transience of time - however the speaker has not forgotten
'Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet'
- The woman is a prostitute and he is using her for physical relief - this was common in Victorian times but uncommon to write about it. Reduction through synecdoche of woman to her mouth is dehumanising. Rhymes with 'beat' suggesting during love making the speaker is fulfilled
'Lost lilies'
- The lilies contrast with the roses as they are known for being funeral flowers so suggests he is mourning his lost love - dead/metaphorically dead to him - ghostly presence - can't move on. Links to the lilies in La Belle
'I cried for madder music and for stronger wine'
- Alliteration - frustration as he is trying to drown her out - he is replacing happiness with something that is fake through prostitution. The wine can link to Dowson's alcoholism
'But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine'
- Past semantic fields of 'wine' 'dance' and 'roses' is juxtaposed with the 'finished feast' and 'lamps expiring' - passion doesn't belong to the real world implying it needs artificial light. When the lamps 'expire' the reality is gayness and darkness - nothing satisfies him or brings him happiness without Cynara - hopeless existence. Cynara returns endlessly, his desire for her is insatiable
'I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion'
- Paradox - he loves her and is mentally devoted to her but physically sleeps with other women - decadent movement. '!' - desperation and panic or frustration for her not loving him. Repeated refrain implies a desperation to prove he still loves her implying his fixation and obsession/infatuation with her