Prothalamion Summary Pdf
Prothalamion or a Spousall Verse made by Edm. In honour of the double Mariage of the two Honorable and Vertuous Ladies. Spenser epithalamion summary pdf Spensers Amoretti and Epithalamion study guide contains a biography of Edmund Spenser. Spensers Amoretti and Epithalamion Summary and.
Could the attendants see her true beauty--her absolute beauty--they would be astonished like those who saw 'Medusaes mazeful hed' and were turned to stone. Stanza 12 Summary The groom calls for the doors to the temple to be opened that his bride may enter in and approach the altar in reverence. He offers his bride as an example for the observing maidens to follow, for she approaches this holy place with reverence and humility. Analysis Spenser shifts the imagery from that of a pagan wedding ceremony, in which the bride would be escorted to the groom's house for the wedding, to a Protestant one taking place in a church (although he describes it with the pre-Christian term 'temple'). The bride enters in as a 'Saynt' in the sense that she is a good Protestant Christian, and she approaches this holy place with the appropriate humility. No mention of Hymen or Phoebus is made; instead the bride approaches 'before th' almighties vew.'
If the god of marriage is ready, and the groom is ready, then he expects his bride to make herself ready as well. The focus is on the sanctity of the wedding day--this occasion itself should urge the bride to come celebrate it as early as possible.
Her eyes and forehead are described in terms of valuable items (sapphires and ivory), her cheeks and lips compared to fruit (apples and cherries), her breast is compared to a bolw of cream, her nipples to the buds of lilies, her neck to an ivory tower, and her whole body compared to a beautiful palace. Stanza 11 Summary The groom moves from the external beauty of the bride to her internal beauty, which he claims to see better than anyone else.
Analysis Here Spenser further develops the nymph-summoning of Stanza 3. That he focuses on the two groups' abilities to prevent disturbances hints that he foresaw a chance of some misfortune attending the wedding.
Analysis Here Spenser further develops the nymph-summoning of Stanza 3. That he focuses on the two groups' abilities to prevent disturbances hints that he foresaw a chance of some misfortune attending the wedding.
Here it is the marriage ceremony, not the bride (or the groom) which determines what is urgent. Stanza 3 Summary The groom instructs the muses to summon all the nymphs they can to accompany them to the bridal chamber. On their way, they are to gather all the fragrant flowers they can and decorate the path leading from the 'bridal bower,' where the marriage ceremony is to take place, to the door of the bride's chambers. If they do so, she will tread nothing but flowers on her procession from her rooms to the site of the wedding. As they adorn her doorway with flowers, their song will awaken the bride Analysis This celebration of Christian matrimony here becomes firmly entrenched in the classical mythology of the Greeks with the summoning of the nymphs. No more pagan image can be found than these nature-spirits strewing the ground with various flowers to make a path of beauty from the bride's bedchamber to the bridal bower.
The minstrels have now become 'Choristers' singing 'praises of the Lord' to the accompaniment of organs. Analysis Now firmly entrenched in the Christian wedding ceremony, the poem dwells upon the bride's reaction to the priest's blessing, and the groom's reaction to his bride's response. Her blush sends him toward another song about her beauty, but he hesitates to commit wholly to that. A shadow of doubt crosses his mind, as he describes her downcast eyes as 'sad' and wonders why making a pledge to marry him should make her blush. Stanza 14 Summary The Christian part of the wedding ceremony is over, and the groom asks that the bride to be brought home again and the celebration to start. He calls for feasting and drinking, turning his attention from the 'almighty' God of the church to the 'God Bacchus,' Hymen, and the Graces. Analysis Spenser slips easily (perhaps even hastily) away from teh Protestant wedding ceremony back to the pagan revelries.
It Is a cleverly contrived poem. So far as the poet is concerned the more important theme is the personal one, the statement of neglected merit, the loss of the great patron and the acquiring of a new one in Essex. But this is hidden and artfully introduced. The most powerful lines are those devoted to Essex to whom Spenser devotes about 23 lines.
And here he again notices, with commendable pride, his honourable descent: 'At length they all to mery London came, To mery London, my most kindly nurse, That to me gave this lifes first native sourse, Though from another place I take my name, All house of auncient fame.' The exertions of the Earl of Essex in the expedition to Cadiz, are also ingeniously introduced into this elegant little Poem' Works of Spenser (1805) 1:cxiv-v.
The bride's overwhelming beauty causes the maidens to forget their song to stare at her. Analysis Spenser engages the blason convention, in which a woman's physical features are picked out and described in metaphorical terms. Unlike his blasons in Amoretti, this listing has no overarching connection among the various metaphors. Her eyes and forehead are described in terms of valuable items (sapphires and ivory), her cheeks and lips compared to fruit (apples and cherries), her breast is compared to a bolw of cream, her nipples to the buds of lilies, her neck to an ivory tower, and her whole body compared to a beautiful palace. Stanza 11 Summary The groom moves from the external beauty of the bride to her internal beauty, which he claims to see better than anyone else. He praises her lively spirit, her sweet love, her chastity, her faith, her honor, and her modesty. He insists that could her observers see her inner beauty, they would be far more awestruck by it than they already are by her outward appearance.
Its chief features are the invocation of the Muse, the procession, feasting, the decoration of the bride, the praise of her beauty, the bride’s arrival at the church, the marriage ceremony, the preparation of the bridal chamber and prayer for their fruitful union. Spenser’s Platonic conception that the outward beauty is a reflection of the inner virtue and purity, manifests itself in the description of the bride who is adorn’d with beauty’s grace and virtue’s store.
Spenser refers again to his own poetry as a worthy offering to the god of poetry and the arts, which he believes has earned him the favor of having this one day belong to himself rather than to the sun-god. Stanza 8 Summary The mortal wedding guests and entertainment move into action. The minstrels play their music and sing, while women play their timbrels and dance. Young boys run throughout the streets crying the wedding song 'Hymen io Hymen, Hymen' for all to hear. Those hearing the cries applaud the boys and join in with the song. Analysis Spenser shifts to the real-world participants in the wedding ceremony, the entertainment and possible guests.
The beauty of her body like a palace fair leads the mind with many a stately stair to honour’s seat, to the seat of perfect virtue. Spenser’s celebration of ideal beauty, and the Petrarchan deification of the lady are conventional.
Although Spenser will later develop the Protestant marriage ideals, he has chosen to greet the wedding day morning with the spirits of ancient paganism instead. Stanza 4 Summary Addressing the various nymphs of other natural locales, the groom asks that they tend to their specialties to make the wedding day perfect. The nymphs who tend the ponds and lakes should make sure the water is clear and unmolested by lively fish, that they may see their own reflections in it and so best prepare themselves to be seen by the bride. The nymphs of the mountains and woods, who keep deer safe from ravening wolves, should exercise their skills in keeping these selfsame wolves away from the bride this wedding day. Both groups are to be present to help decorate the wedding site with their beauty.
'The same year (1596) he produced his, in honour of the double marriage of Lady Elizabeth and Lady Catherine Somerset. This piece, though defective as a poem, contains a good deal of poetical imagery, but it is chiefly distinguished for the peculiar melody of its stanzas' Retrospective Review 12 (1825) 163.: 'I think the versification of the an Epith. Was formed upon some of Bernardo Tasso's Canzoni. 95, 118' Common-Place Book (1849-51) 4:311.: 'This seems to have been the last extant poetical production by Spenser, and the last published by William Posonby: after 1596 the copyrights of all Posonby's various publications were assigned to Matthew Lownes, who, as we have mentioned, subsequently issued impressions of Spenser's works in folio' Poetical Works of Spenser (1862; 1875) 1:cxxvii.
Could the attendants see her true beauty--her absolute beauty--they would be astonished like those who saw 'Medusaes mazeful hed' and were turned to stone. Stanza 12 Summary The groom calls for the doors to the temple to be opened that his bride may enter in and approach the altar in reverence. He offers his bride as an example for the observing maidens to follow, for she approaches this holy place with reverence and humility. Analysis Spenser shifts the imagery from that of a pagan wedding ceremony, in which the bride would be escorted to the groom's house for the wedding, to a Protestant one taking place in a church (although he describes it with the pre-Christian term 'temple'). The bride enters in as a 'Saynt' in the sense that she is a good Protestant Christian, and she approaches this holy place with the appropriate humility.
Analysis This unusual stanza has a 'missing line'-- a break after the ninth line of the stanza (line 156). The structure probably plays into Spenser's greater organization of lines and meter, which echo the hours of the day with great mathematical precision. There is no aesthetic reason within the stanza for the break, as it takes place three lines before the verses describing the bride's own reaction to her admirers. The comparison to Phoebe, twin sister of Phoebus, is significant since the groom has essentially bargained to take Phoebus' place of prominence this day two stanzas ago. He sees the bride as a perfect, even divine, counterpart to himself this day, as Day and Night are inextricably linked in the passage of time. Stanza 10 Summary The groom asks the women who see his bride if they have ever seen anyone so beautiful in their town before. He then launches into a list of all her virtues, starting with her eyes and eventually describing her whole body.
Analysis Another classical figure, Hymen, is invoked here, and not for the last time. If the god of marriage is ready, and the groom is ready, then he expects his bride to make herself ready as well. The focus is on the sanctity of the wedding day--this occasion itself should urge the bride to come celebrate it as early as possible.
The reference to Orpheus is an allusion to that hero's luring of his bride's spirit from the realm of the dead using his beautiful music; the groom, too, hopes to awaken his bride from her slumber, leading her into the light of their wedding day. Stanza 2 Summary Before the break of day, the groom urges the muses to head to his beloved's bower, there to awaken her. 
Hymen, god of marriage, is already awake, and so too should the bride arise. The groom urges the muses to remind his bride that this is her wedding day, an occasion that will return her great delight for all the 'paynes and sorrowes past.' Analysis Another classical figure, Hymen, is invoked here, and not for the last time.
Edmund Spenser Epithalamion Summary
The successful handling of the very complicated arrangement shows the poet's mastery over a new metre.
Stanza 22 Summary The groom adds more deities to his list of patron. He asks Juno, wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage, to make their union strong and sacred, then turns her attention toward making it fruitful. So, too, he asks Hebe and Hymen to do the same for them. Analysis While asking Juno to bless the marriage, the speaker cannot refrain from asking for progeny.
Analysis Although not a blason like the last stanza, this set of verses is nonetheless a catalogue of the bride's inner virtues. Spenser moves for a moment away from the emphasis on outward beauty so prominent in this ode and in pagan marriage ceremonies, turning instead to his other classical influence: Platonism. He describes the ideal woman, unsullied by fleshly weakness or stray thoughts.
These lines are direct address. The poem is skillfully directed to take in this matter. The train of thought and the plan of poem are so conducted that the passage on Essex is integral and not superimposed.
He makes another comparison to mythology, this time Zeus' affair with Alcmene and his affair with Night herself. Analysis Here again Spenser uses a classical allusion to Zeus, mentioning not only the woman with whom Zeus had relations, but also their offspring. Alcmene was a daughter of Pleiades and, through Zeus, became the mother of Hercules. The focus has almost shifted away from the bride or the act of consummation to the potential child that may come of this union.
And the penultimate line slightly varied to suit the meaning. Poem is lyrical throughout and the repetition adds to the lyrical effect. The organization of stanza makes for great variety in the cadence with the mixing of 10 syllabic and 6 syllabic lines. There are fourteen of the former and four of the latter in each stanza.
Epithalamion Stanzas 1 through 12 Epithalamion is an ode written by as a gift to his bride, Elizabeth Boyle, on their wedding day. The poem moves through the couples' wedding day, from the groom's impatient hours before dawn to the late hours of night after the husband and wife have consummated their marriage. Spenser is very methodical in his depiction of time as it passes, both in the accurate chronological sense and in the subjective sense of time as felt by those waiting in anticipation or fear.
Epithalamion Summary Sparknotes
He exults that the sun is so bright and the day so beautiful, then changes his tone to regret as he realize his wedding is taking place on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and so his nighttime nuptial bliss will be delayed all the longer, yet last only briefly. Analysis By identifying the exact day of the wedding (the summer solstice, June 20), Spenser allows the reader to fit this poetic description of the ceremony into a real, historical context.
Spencer Epithalamion Summary
Stanza 10 Summary The groom asks the women who see his bride if they have ever seen anyone so beautiful in their town before. He then launches into a list of all her virtues, starting with her eyes and eventually describing her whole body. The bride's overwhelming beauty causes the maidens to forget their song to stare at her. Analysis Spenser engages the blason convention, in which a woman's physical features are picked out and described in metaphorical terms. Unlike his blasons in Amoretti, this listing has no overarching connection among the various metaphors.
As some critics have noted, a timeline of the day superimposed over the verse structure of the entire ode produces an accurate, line-by-line account of the various astronomical events (sunrise, the position of the stars, sunset). Stanza 16 Summary The groom continues his frustrated complaint that the day is too long, but grows hopeful as at long last the evening begins its arrival. Seeing the evening start in the East, he addresses is as 'Fayre childe of beauty, glorious lampe of loue,' urging it to come forward and hasten the time for the newlyweds to consummate their marriage. Analysis Again focused on time, the speaker here is able to draw hope from the approach of twilight. He is eager to be alone with his bride, and so invokes the evening star to lead the bride and groom to their bedchamber. Stanza 17 Summary The groom urges the singers and dancers to leave the wedding, but take the bride to her bed as they depart.
Whether this is conventional 'wedding day jitters' or a more politically-motivated concern over the problem of Irish uprisings is uncertain, but the wolves mentioned would come from the forests--the same place Irish resistance groups use to hide their movements and strike at the occupying English with impunity. Stanza 5 Summary The groom now addresses his bride directly (even if she is not present) to urge her to awaken. Sunrise is long since gone and Phoebus, the sun-god, is showing 'his glorious hed.' The birds are already singing, and the groom insists their song is a call to joy directed at the bride. Analysis The mythical figures of Rosy Dawn, Tithones, and Phoebus are here invoked to continue the classical motif of the ode. Thus far, it is indistinguishable in content from a pagan wedding-song. That the groom must address his bride directly demonstrates both his impatience and the ineffectiveness of relying on the muses and nymphs to summon forth the bride.
In typical pagan bargaining convention, the speaker assures the gods that if they give him children, these future generations will venerate the gods and fill the earth with 'Saints.' Stanza 24 Summary The groom addresses his song with the charge to be a 'goodly ornament' for his bride, whom he feels deserves many physical adornments as well. Time was too short to procure these outward decorations for his beloved, so the groom hopes his ode will be an 'endlesse moniment' to her. Analysis Spenser follows Elizabeth convention in returning to a self-conscious meditation upon his ode itself. He asks that this ode, which he is forced to give her in place of the many ornaments which his bride should have had, will become an altogether greater adornment for her. He paradoxically asks that it be 'for short time' and 'endless' monument for her, drawing the reader's attention back to the contrast between earthly time, which eventually runs out, and eternity, which lasts forever in a state of perfection.
No mention of Hymen or Phoebus is made; instead the bride approaches 'before th' almighties vew.' The minstrels have now become 'Choristers' singing 'praises of the Lord' to the accompaniment of organs. How To Cite in MLA Format Gordon, Todd. Chazelle, Damien ed. 'Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion Epithalamion Stanzas 1 through 12 Summary and Analysis'. GradeSaver, 23 August 2010 Web.
Illustration by Prothalamion, the commonly used name of Prothalamion; or, A Spousall Verse in Honour of the Double Marriage of Ladie Elizabeth and Ladie Katherine Somerset, is a by (1552–1599), one of the important of the in. Published in 1596 (see ), it is a song that he composed that year on the occasion of the twin marriage of the daughters of the, Elizabeth Somerset and Katherine Somerset, to and respectively. Prothalamion is written in the conventional form of a marriage song. The poem begins with a description of the where Spenser finds two beautiful maidens. The poet proceeds to praise them and wishing them all the blessings for their marriages. The poem begins with a fine description of the day when on which he is writing the poem: Calm was the day and through the trembling air The sweet breathing did softly play. The poet is standing near the Thames River and finds a group of nymphs with baskets collecting flowers for the new brides.