Love heeds no more the sighing of the wind
Against the perfect flowers: thy garden’s close
Is grown a wilderness, where none shall find
One strayed, last petal of one last year’s rose.

O bright, bright hair! O mount like a ripe fruit!
Can famine be so nigh to harvesting?
Love, that was songful, with a broken lute
In grass of graveyards goeth murmuring.

Let the wind blow against the perfect flowers,
And all thy garden change and glow with spring:
Love is grown blind with no more count of hours
Nor part in seed-tune nor in harvesting.

Note: This poem is in the public domain.

About the Poet

Ernest Christopher Dowson (August 2, 1867 – February 23, 1900) was an English poet, novelist, and short-story writer closely associated with the Decadent movement. His work is known for its intense emotion and fascination with beauty, transience, and loss, themes that resonate deeply in his short but poignant life story.

Dowson’s life was marked by tragic loss. In August 1894, his father, who suffered from tuberculosis, passed away from an overdose of chloral hydrate. Not long after, in February 1895, Dowson’s mother, also battling tuberculosis, took her own life. These successive losses seemed to push Dowson into a downward spiral, both physically and emotionally.

His friend Leonard Smithers supported him during this difficult period, offering an allowance that allowed Dowson to live in France and take on translation work. Despite this, Dowson eventually returned to London in 1897 to stay with the Foltinowicz family.

By 1899, Dowson’s situation had worsened. Robert Sherard, another friend, found him nearly destitute in a wine bar and brought him to his cottage in Catford, where Dowson spent his final six weeks.

Dowson passed away on February 23, 1900, at just 32 years old, and was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic section of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries in London.

Despite his brief life, Dowson left an enduring literary legacy. He is remembered for three unforgettable phrases in his poetry that continue to echo in popular culture:

• “Days of wine and roses,” from his poem “Vitae Summa Brevis.”
• “Gone with the wind,” from “Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae.”
• “I have been faithful … in my fashion,” also from “Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae.”

Each of these lines has taken on a life of its own. For instance, the phrase “Days of wine and roses” inspired the title of a television play in 1958, as well as a popular song and film adaptation that followed.

Dowson’s words have become part of the cultural fabric, capturing the sense of beauty and melancholy that defined both his work and his life.