Autumnal / Ernest Dowson

Autumnal

Pale amber sunlight falls across
     The reddening October trees,
     That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
     Seems little, dear! on days like these!

Let misty autumn be our part!
     The twilight of the year is sweet:
     Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
     Eludes a little time's deceit.

Are we not better and at home
     In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
     No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
     A little while, then, let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie
     Winter and night: awaiting these
     We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
     Beneath the drear November trees.

~~
Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)
from The Poems of Ernest Dowson, 1900

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Ernest Dowson biography

Cynara / Ernest Dowson

   
Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae

Last night, ah, yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine
There fell thy shadow, Cynara! thy breath was shed
Upon my soul between the kisses and the wine;
And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, I was desolate and bowed my head:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,
Night-long within mine arms in love and sleep she lay;
Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
When I awoke and found the dawn was gray:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,
But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,
Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;
And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, hungry for the lips of my desire:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

~~

Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)
from Verses, 1896

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Title: "I am not as good as I was under the reign of Cynara". (Horace)

Ernest Dowson biography

"Cynara" read by Tom O'Bedlam. Courtesy SpokenVerse.

Envoy / Ernest Dowson

     

Envoy

     Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,

     Love and desire and hate;

I think they have no portion in us after

                  We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses;

     Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

                  Within a dream.

~~

Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)
from Verses, 1896

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Epigraph: "The brief sum of life forbids us the hope of enduring long." (Horace)

Ernest Dowson biography

"Days of Wine and Roses" read by Tom O'Bedlam. Courtesy SpokenVerse.