Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae

Question 1

Who wrote this poem?

Answer 1

Ernest Dowson

Question 2

What is the structure of the poem?

Answer 2

• Regular with 4 stanzas of 6 lines, the 5th line of each slightly shorter than the rest
• The uniformity is satisfying
• The metre contrasts the unconventional use of iambic hexameter
• The rhyme scheme is also regular but unusual

Question 3

What type of poem is this and what does it convey

Answer 3

• A decadent poem
• Sees the speaker muse over his inability to forget his former lover cynara
• Unruly behaviour
• Fascination with excess and indulgence

Question 4

What is the historical context of the poem?

Answer 4

• Victorian England was prosperous and conservative
• end of this period was lining for simpler times
• The period was defined by growing political and artistic cynicism and an interest in romanticised childhood
• Wearied longing for an idealised golden age

Question 5

What is the literary context of the poem?

Answer 5

• Dowson took inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites movement which poets wrote of legend, love and tragedy. This inspiration can be seen in the “lily” like appearance of cynarae
• The decadent movement which contributed to, was a movement led by the belief in “art for art’s sake” and nostalgia

Question 6

Give some points in the decadent movement

Answer 6

• 1890s
• radical themes such as self-indulgence, eroticism, rebelliousness
• People saw the uncoupling of art and mortality as dangerous
• 3 aspects of the poem make define it as belonging to the decadent movement

Question 7

Explain how perversity, love of excess and egotism are explored in this poem?

Answer 7

• Perversity: evident in the way the speaker is unable to banish the memory of cynarae. gets perverse pleasure from the experience of thinking about her whilst being with another woman. “Brought her red mouth” this woman is a prostitute which contributes to the decadent movement
• Love of excess: excessive emotionalism and behavior in attempts to expunge the memory of cynara. Speaker intends on indulging in drinking wine and eating lavishly however his efforts are in vain which creates an image of hysteria and madness
• Egotism: Poem is a nod to the poet and his psychopathy. Conflicted response to the dilemma that drives the poem. Every fourth line is a reminder of his desolation and every 6th line a guilty justification. The repetitive structure emphasizes the obsessive and excessive nature of the speaker

Question 8

What is a key personal information about Ernest Dowson

Answer 8

He never seemed to have a reciprocal lover himself

Question 9

What is the significance of the title of the poem?

Answer 9

• Taken from a great Latin poem written by Horace
• “I am not as I was under the reign of good cynara”
• Places himself in a long poetic tradition
• The speaker is love-sick and sees his lover in everything that he does

Question 10

How is the theme love and loss explored in this poem?

Answer 10

Love and Loss: Laments on the loss of cynara his former lover. uses emphatic sounds such as “ah” and “yea”. substitute intimacy and philandering. Physically distant but emotionally present. “upon my soul between the kisses and the wine” suggests special connection between the speaker and his lover. Epimone “I was desolate” emphasizes the speakers loneliness and the wretchedness of his mental state now cynara is gone

Question 11

How is the theme love through the ages according to history and time explored in this poem?

Answer 11

• Employment of the same title as another historically acknowledged poem suggests that the same tumultuous emotions exists across time
• The poem is not grounded in time or concrete fats and the pain of loss feels endless and unintelligible

Question 12

How is the theme truth and deception explored in this poem?

Answer 12

• The mention of his hiring a prostitute leads the reader to question how trustworthy the speaker is if he is so willing to use and dismiss women in such ways
• He is deceptive in his sexual engagement with the “red mouth” allowing her to sleep in his arms and talking of the close proximity of their hearts beating implying a level of intimacy which he clearly does not feel
• How much does he really love cynara if he is willing to engage with other sexual partners in her absence. Possibly, the love he feels for cynara is more of an obsession like the knight in La belle dame sans merci

Question 13

What other themes are explored in the poem?

Answer 13

• Proximity and distance
• Love and sex

Question 14

What is the significance of the form of the poem?

Answer 14

• Unconventional
• Regularity is pleasurable when accompanied by repetition also reflect cyclical and predictable nature of the speaker’s memories of cynara

Question 15

What is the significance of the meter used this poem?

Answer 15

• Loose iambic hexameter
• Irregularities in the poem is juxtaposed with the metrical regularity and tis create an element of consistency
• Like cynara’s ghostly visitations, the poems meter is unpredictable

Question 16

Wat is the rhyme scheme and its significance?

Answer 16

• ABACBC
• just like the speaker and cynara, they are physically connected and separated at the same time
• It could be representative in an intrusive way since cynara comes to the speaker’s mind when he is engaging in sexual or romantic acts

Question 17

What quotations in this poem parallel the great Gatsby

Answer 17

• “I was desolate and sick of an old passion”
• “he was running down like an overwound clock” Chapter 5
• “when the feast is finished and the lamps expire, there falls thy shadow”
• “He broke off and began to walk down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers” Chapter 6

Question 18

What are the similarities and differences between this poem and Absent from thee

Answer 18

• Romantic love of many kinds: Both are removed from romantic and physical satisfaction. In this poem the speaker names his lover which is amore romantic gesture. The love in absent from thee is more religiously intertwined however considered sacrilegious
• Love and loss: The absence of cynara in this poem has a significant mental effect on the speaker as seems to descend into madness. The speaker from absent from thee does not grieve this way as he is the one who left giving him more power and control
• Truth and deception: Both are deceptive on the insistence of their infidelity. In this poem, the speaker develops a new form of faithfulness.

Question 19

What is the significance of the use of exclamation in this poem?

Answer 19

• Certain element of movement and progression
• carefully choreographed stops and pauses
• Creates natural caesura
• Abrupt and forceful

Question 20

What figure of speech is used in the following sentence and state its significance
- “when the feast is finished and the lamps expire”

Answer 20

• Tense shift
• Evokes the present importance of the speakers compulsion
• Use of sick emphasizes that speaker is closer to disease