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Dowson was born in Kent in England, educated at Oxford though he left without taking a degree. He joined the Rhymer's club and contributed poems to The Yellow Book and The Savoy. In 1891 he met Adelaide Foltinowicz, a restaurateur's daughter, then aged 12 and she became a symbol of love and innocence some of his verse. He courted her for 2 years but when she came of age she married a waiter who worked in her father's restaurant! His parents committed suicide within a few months of each other in 1895 and afterwards he wandered aimlessly between England, France and Ireland. He was a friend of W B Yeats, who described him as 'timid, silent and a little melancholy'. He died of alcoholism in 1900 at the early age of 33.
