This thesis is a study of certain aspects, principally linguistic, of the work of Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867-1900) which have received little or no attention in the critical literature so far published in English (though a major general study of Dowson has recently been published in French). These aspects include an examination of the degree to which the work of Walter Pater and John Henry Newman, claimed by Dowson himself as major influences upon him, had an impact upon his attitudes and literary style; the relationship of his poetry to the voice and to the body (these seen both in reality and as literary constructs); Dowson's informal written style as displayed in his correspondence; and the formal, literary English of his poetry and prose translations from French. In order to establish a context for this research, the study begins with a biographical reassessment. It concludes with an examination of the influence of Dowson's writing on twentieth-century literature and culture. It emerges that, though he has not generally been considered a major poet, Dowson's diversity and richness in his use of language plays a significant role in bridging the gap between the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.