An epithalamion or epithalamium (plural "epithalamion") is a wedding song. The name is derived from the Greek words epi (on, upon) and thalamos (room, bridal chamber), and the ancient examples of the genre were designed to be sung in the doorway of the bridal chamber. Renaissance poets base their epithalamia partly on classical models, including those written by Sappho and by the Roman poet Catullus.

Watch for the following key characteristics in each of the poems you read for today.  Not every poem includes every convention, but these are the most common conventions of the genre:
1. Form:

A. elaborate multi-line rhyming stanzas
B. often (though not always) the use of a refrain or repetition
C. Heavy use of classical allusion, especially to the god of marriage (Hymen) and the goddess of childbearing (Juno)
D. Frequently follows a chronological organization, beginning before sunrise, calling the bride to rise from her bed, following through the procession to the church, the ceremony, the wedding feast, the "laying of the bride" (a ceremony of putting the bride into her marriage bed), the drinking of the "posset" (a beverage probably intended as an aphrodisiac), the consummation of the marriage, and sometimes the morning after.

A. Marriage and/or defloration of the bride as strife, violence of some sort.
B. Marriage's fruitfulness; prayers for fertility and often a hope that conception will take place on the wedding night.
C. The warding off of ill luck, envy, and other malevolent forces.
D. The importance of the marriage to society and/or to a particular political order (especially an aristocracy, monarchy).
E. The beauty and/or virtue of the bride and/or groom. Sometimes, also, the clothing and adornments of the bride.
F. Consummation of the marriage as a harvest (gathering of fruit) or as the payment of a debt (this image derives in part from 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, where St. Paul speaks of husbands and wives "render[ing] . . . due benevolence" unto each other, since "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other . . ."

A. The speaker (or, to be more precise, singer) of a Renaissance epithalamion (i.e., its persona) is usually not a neutral onlooker; rather, he (I know of no Renaissance epithalamia written from a female point of view) takes the role of a master-of-ceremonies. He does not perform the wedding ceremony, but his song is itself a ceremonial addition to the rites joining bride and groom. Occasionally, there are exceptions; in Edmund Spenser's "Epithalamion," which he wrote for his marriage to Elizabeth Boyle in 1595, Spenser himself--the groom--is also the speaker/singer of the poem.
B. The epithalamion is usually addressed to the sun, the wedding day itself, the wedding guests, or the bride and groom. There are also variations on these possibilities, as when Donne addresses St. Valentine on the occasion of a Valentine's Day wedding. Often, different stanzas of an epithalamion are addressed to different addressees. The presumed audience for the poem are readers who are members of the courtly society or aristocracy mentioned in 2D above.

1. Because an epithalamion is a ritual song, it has an element of sacred magic about it; it becomes itself a kind of wedding rite and, like other ceremonial pronouncements ("I do," "I now pronounce you," etc.) it not only says or tells or describes something, but does something through the saying. That is, it is a "performative utterance." What do the various epithalamia you read for today do?
A) To/For the bride?
B) To/For the groom?
C) To/For the wedding guests and/or the readers?
D) To/For the society in which the wedding takes place?
Keep in mind that the answers to these questions may differ from poem to poem.

2. Analyze the purpose and effect of the epithalamia you read for today in relation to its allusions to dark, sad, disturbing, or violent events and forces -- particularly death, defloration as sacrifice, and envy or rivalry.

3. How do refrain and repetition function in each of these poems? (Again, the function may differ from poem to poem).

4.  Some scholars think that Donne's "Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn" is a parody of the genre.  They note that mock weddings were sometimes enacted as part of a carnivalesque winter festival celebrated at the law school called Lincoln's Inn, where Donne was a student for several years.  In these raucous student celebrations, the roles of the bride and groom were both played by male law students, and a mock-epithalamion would have made an interesting addition to the mix.  Based on your reading of the other two works, each of which is a serious poem written for a real nuptial celebration, what do you think of the theory about "Epithalamion Made at Lincoln's Inn"?