EPITHALAMION BY SPENSER /POEM SUMMARY - PG TRB ENGLISH/MCQ/QUIZ

EPITHALAMION (AT THE NUPTIAL CHAMBER) EDMUND SPENSER  Spencer was born in East Smithfield ,London in 1552  Spencer was secretary to Lord Arthur Gray  Spencer followed “Protestantism” in religion  He is non-dramatic, Elizabethan poet  Through Earl of Leicester, he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth and he received Kilcolman Castle from Elizabeth,near this castle is river Mulla  Spencer dedicated “Colins Clouts Come Home Again” to Sir Walter Raleigh  Under the pseudonym of “Immerito” spencer wrote “The Shepherds Calendar” based on “Theocritus style” of writing  His famous work “The Faerie Queen” supports Queen Elizabeth I and English protestant Church  Faerie Queen first 3 books published in 1590, and second 3 books in 1596  Spenser used Spensarian stanza in his “Faerie Queene”  Spensarian stanza’s main meter is in Iambic pentameter and final line(Alexandrine) in Iambic hexameter (six foot), Rhyme scheme ab ab bc bcc  Spencer’s “Four Hymn” was published with second edition of “Daphnaida” it is based on Love, Beauty, Heavenly love and Heavenly beauty  On the death of noble Douglas Howard, Spencer wrote an elegy “Daphnaida”  “Amoretti” sonnets collection(total 89 sonnets) in 1595 followed by 4 short lyrics called “Anacreontics” and “Epithalamion”  On the death of “Sir Philip Sidney” he wrote an elegy “Astrophel” in 1595  Spencer’s another work in Two cantos “Mutabilitie “ (1609)  Spenser is called as “Mulla’s Bard”(river near his home Mulla) , “Reubens of English Poetry” , “The sunrise of English Poetry”, “Prince of poets” inscribed on his Tomb, “Spencer writ no language” said Ben Jonson, “Master craftsman of the Renaissance”, “Poet of Chivalry and medieval allegory”, “Child of Renaissance and Reformation” said by Ricketts , “Poetic son of Chaucer”, “The second father of English Poetry”, “English virgil”, “Our Sage and serious poet” said by John Milton, “Spencer died lack of bread”(in poverty) said by Ben Johnson , “Thomson called him, “My Master Spenser”, Worsdsworth called him , “Brother ,English man and Friend and gentle bard”  On 16th January 1599, he was buried in Poet’s corner in Westminister Abbey, near Chaucer  Alexander Pope said “Spencer is compared to a mistress, whose faults we see but love her with them all Poem summary  EPITHALAMION IS A GREEK WORD  Epithalamion is an Ode, written by Spencer, it is one of the poems in his collection of sonnets “Amorretti” (88 +1=89 sonnets)  Amoretti is a collection of 88 love sonnets to his lady love Elizabeth Boyle, that sonnet sequence ends with the wedding of his lover Elizabeth Boyle through this “Epithalamion”  Amoretti is an Italian word, meaning is cupid  In Amoretti there are two characters 1)Lover and Lady love  In Epithalamion there are two characters 1)Bridegroom 2)Bride  Epithalamion is master piece of Spencer’s minor poems  The subtitle of Epithalamion is “At the nuptial chamber”  “Epithalamion” is a Greek word, it is a Greek poem about Bride’s way to Marital Chamber. Catallus (latin poet) wrote famous “Epithalamium”  “Epithalamium” is a latin word  Like wise “Hymenaious” Greek lyric poem is about the procession of bride to Groom’s house  Epithalamion commemorates (explain in memory of) Spenser’s wedding with “Elizabeth Boyle”. So it is called wedding song  The wedding date June 11, 1594 place Ireland, Elizabeth’s place  “Epithalamion” published in “Amoretti” in 1595  Bridegroom belongs to England, Bride belongs to Ireland  Written in Irregular stanza in the model of Italian conzone (Italian ballad, usually 5 to 7 stanzas, with different rhyme scheme)  The maximum 19 lines in a stanza  433 lines total, in 24 parts(23 stanzas 19 lines and an envoi (7 lines))  The poem has 24 stanzas refers the 24 hours of the wedding day in Midsummer  365 long lines corresponding to the 365 days in a year.But total lines is 433, remaining lines 68 lines are short lines ( with fewer than ten syllables in a line)  The short lines 68 refers 52 weeks,12 month and 4 seasons (52+12+4=68)  It has the influence of Theocritus’s “Epithalamium” of Helen , Catullus “The Wedding of Manlius and Helen”  Epitalamium is an Elizabethan mosque(colourful ceremony)  The poem starts with invocation to muses to help the groom/poet to sing the praises of his beloved  Opening line of the poem : “Ye learned sisters which have often times beene to me ayding , others to adorne”  Here learned sisters refers, Jove and Juno’s nine children/minor divinities  He says he will sing of his lover to himself like Orpheus (son of Apollo) did for his own bride(Eurydice)  “Let no one envy her, all the woods will answer him and Echo his words”  Echo-lady Nymph who loved Narcissus and pined(sad) away till only her voice remained  Poet asks Muses to awake her  God of Marriage: Hymen is awake already so she should also get up, moreover it is her great delight for all the “paynes and sorrowes past”  He asks Muses to summon all the nymphs and decorate path leading to Bridal Bower with flowers  Ponds and lakes should be cleared by Nymphs and ponds must be unmolested by lively fish  Ponds should be clean that they must seen their images clearly in the water  Poet calls nymphs of river Mulla, then tells nymphs of lake to bind scattered locks/hair and attend the marriage party  Three Graces –refers Aglasis , EuphroSyne and Thalia the three sister Goddesses of the muses,also called as Charities  Nymphs of mountains and woods keep deer safe from wolves, keep wolves away from bride  Now the poet addresses the lover directly , he asks her to wake up because “Phoebus”(sun-god, originator of all arts) is showing his glorious head  Bride is compared to Phoebe (the goddess of moon) another name (Artemis/Titaness) dressed (clad) in white  Her eyes are like sun with their Godly beams , they are more bright than “Hesperus”(evening star)  The poet asks “Daughters of Delight” “hours of day and night”, “seasons” and “three handmayds of venus” to attend the bride  The poet asks “three handmayds of venus” to sing to her lover and they help her to dress as they do for venus  Bride is ready with her virgin attendants. Now the poet/groom requests sun to shine brightly and not hotly because it may burn bride’s fair skin  He prays to Phoebus – to give him this one day and keeps all other days with himself(sun). He is even ready to exchange his own poetry as an offering for this great favour of sun  Minstrels(musicians) play music and sing, women play Timbrels and dance, young boys shouting, running and singing wedding song “Hymen, io Hymen , Hymen”  The poet says no one is more beautiful than the bride and praises her body, the other maiden forget their song and stare at her beauty  Then praises her internal beauty, lively spirit, sweet love, chastity, faith , honor and her modesty.  If her admirers see her inner beauty they would be more surprised than seeing her outer beauty  He asks the temple door to be opened , he tells other maidens to follow the bride as an example. The bride reaches there with reverence and humility  The bride stands before altar, priest blesses her , she blushes , seeing her blush , other angels forget their duties and encircle her, the poet /groom wonders why should she blush to marry him  Wedding ceremony is over in stanza 14, the groom asks that the bride to be brought home and celebration to be startled . He now looks at god Bacchus (God of wine and revelry).Hymen requests the Graces to dance(Graces means Aglasis,Euphrosyne and Thalia, 3 sister Goddesses of Muses)  He feels excited of the sun’s brightness and suddenly regrets the wedding is on the summer days,because the daytime will be longer and so his nighttime bliss will be delayed and brief  The wedding day June 11, it is St Barnabas day, longest day is associated with this date  The poet addresses evening that starts in the east “Fayre childe of beauty, glorious lamb of love” to come fast so the newly wed can consummate their marriage  He asks the singers and dancers to take the bride to bed and to leave immediately  The poet compares the sight of her lover lying on the bed to that of Maia(mountain Goddess)  Maia’s lover is Joye/Zeus (sky and thunderer God) (King of Gods), their son is Hermes (messenger of God and Trade)  Greek Nymph ,Maia is the daughter of Atlas/Oceanus and Maia is the mother of Hermes  Greek Nymph Maia is also the shy goddess, she avoided the company of the gods and lived in deep cave  Now the night has come. The poet asks night to protect them. He asks the night to be quiet like when the Zeus had affair with Plaiades’ daughter Alcmene, then she begot Heracles  Be quiet like when Zeus had affair with Night (herself)  Now the poet prays that no evil spirits ,witches , hob goblins, ghosts(malicious spirits), vultures /bad thoughts enter into them  The groom wants silence to prevail and wishes “hundred little winged loves” to fly around the bed till daybreak  The groom asks Cinthia (MOON goddess) to make his bride’s chaste womb fertile that night and not to get angry of his love, because Cinthia too loved Endymion  He asks Juno (Goddess of marriage, Goddess of childbirth, wife of zeus) to make their union , strong and sacred  He also prays to Hebe (Goddess of youth) and Hymen(God of Marriage) to make their wedding fortunate and provide wedded Bliss  This is the last stanza 24th (7 line called envoi/short stanza at the end of a poem)  The groom calls this song as “goodly ornament” the bride deserves so many physical adornments but time was short for outward decorations for his beloved bride ,so he presents this ode song  The groom hopes this ode will be “And for short time an endless monument”-last line of the poem  The poet compares his lover with panther animal  The poet also compares his lover to the substance of marble  The refrain in the poem “That all the woods should answer and your echo ring”  EOS-Goddesss of Dawn(Greek) in Roman (Aurora) her lover, Tithonus(mortal)  The father of muse is Phoebus/Sun  Medusa – instead of hair, she had headful of snakes, one who looks into her eyes will become stone