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private, secret joy that remains ineffable. Finally, the poem moves toward affective joy, bestowing a kind of blessedness, or even grace, upon the listener, much like the practice of reciting the Psalms itself was supposed to do. Countering the relative absence of joy as a lived emotion, Spenser’s
Epithalamion sets out to combine the discourses of joy—psalmic praises, hymnody, spiritual comfort, heavenly foretaste, festivity, matrimony, and finally, sex—into an all-inclusive articulation."
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an hour of that day, eventually leading to the event and then to the consummation. Every hour is described in detail; from what is being worn to where the wedding is taking place to
Spenser's own thoughts. The 24 stanzas represent the 24 hours in a day and the 365 longer lines represent every day in a year. Spenser's wedding is one day; the first 16 stanzas are the day time and the last 8 are the night time, and the relationship with Boyle has been occurring for a year.
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Spenser meticulously records the hours of the day from before dawn to late into the wedding night: its 24 stanzas represent the hours of
Midsummer Day. The ode's content progresses from the enthusiasm of youth to the concerns of middle age by beginning with high hopes for a joyful day and ending with
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to help the groom, and moves through the couple's wedding day, from
Spenser's impatient hours before dawn while waiting for his bride to wake up, to the late hours of night after Spenser and Boyle have consummated their marriage (wherein Spenser's thoughts drift towards the wish for his bride to have
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There are 24 stanzas and 433 lines in the poem. There are 365 longer lines and 68 shorter lines. The 365 longer lines represent the year leading up to
Spenser's wedding day. The poem starts at midnight of the day of the wedding, as Spenser grows anxious of the future he is embracing. Every stanza is
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is a song or poem written specifically for a bride on her way to the marital chamber. In
Spenser's work, he is spending the day anxiously awaiting to marry Elizabeth Boyle. The poem describes the day in detail. The couple wakes up and Spenser begs the muses to help him on his artistic endeavor for
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Epithalamion follows a rhyme a scheme of ABABCC, DEDEFF, and so on (except the 15th stanza.). The structure is 24 stanzas, each with either 18 lines or 19 (15th stanza has 17 lines). The last stanza is an envoy(a short formal stanza which is appended to a poem by way of conclusion) with 7 lines.
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and beings to
Christian language to praise Elizabeth. After the ceremony, Spenser becomes even more anxious at the thought of consummating the marriage. Spenser then rebukes any idea of evil that could ruin their new found happiness. Spenser asks for blessings for childbearing, fidelity, and all
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of the time "Spenser’s
Epithalamion reflects this communal joy as it narrates a public celebration of marriage, and does so in song and psalmic refrains. Spenser’s poetic interest in the earthly nature of joy takes Epithalamion beyond an expression of celebratory, communal joy and into a more
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In the 15th stanza, Spenser changes the structure. Throughout the poem, the stanzas are structured with 18 or 19 lines. In the 15th, there is a line missing. The rhyming structure typically goes ABABCC, then DEDEFF and so on. But stanza 15 is FEGGHH. This might have been done to keep the
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in Europe. He was also considered to be a part of the
Elizabethan era. It coincided with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and is considered to be the literary height of the English Renaissance. Poetic forms such as love
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When she finally wakes, the two head to the church. Hymen
Hymenaeus is sung by the minstrels at the festivities. As the ceremony begins, Spenser shifts from praising
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is a poem which gives ritualized and public affect to the personal on a number of levels, cosmographical, publicly prayerful and euchological."
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Melissa Sanchez's essay praised the hidden messages in the poem, while James Larsen spoke of the poem in his critical edition: "
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Sanchez, Melissa (2012). "'Modesty or Comeliness': The Predicament of Reform Theology in Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalamion".
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the day. Spenser spends a majority of the poem praising his bride to be, which is depicted as both innocent and lustful.
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to his bride, Elizabeth Boyle, on their wedding day in 1594. It was first published in 1595 in London by
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The title page from the first edition of Amoretti and Epithalamion, printed by William Ponsonby in 1595.
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Lambert, James (2014). "Spenser's Epithalamion and the Protestant Expression of Joy".
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of the poem or to keep the structure of the 365 lines as a metaphor for a year.
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Amoretti and Epithalamion. Written not long since by Edmunde Spenser
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Many modern scholars argue the effectiveness of Spenser's work.
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Edmund Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalamion: A Critical Edition
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Edmund Spener's Amoretti and Epithalamion A Critical Edition
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an eye toward the speaker's legacy to future generations.
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James Lambert wrote about how the poem connected to the
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a fertile womb so that they may have many children).
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