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E211: British Literature to 1760 Edmund Spenser Study Questions Alfred J. Drake. Office: Hum. 520 | W 3-4 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com "Epithalamion" (Wedding Song--a Classical Genre) 1. Sketch the poem's structure as suggested in the editors' note. What thematic movements can you connect with this intricately wrought structure? 1 introductory stanza 2. Why is this wedding song set in the woods? How does the forest prove significant with regard to the poet's task and his hopes and duties as a lover? Consider, for example, each stanza's varied final-line references to the ecchoing of sounds through the forest: why is the ecchoing important for more than mere physical description? 3. With what qualities does the poet invest his bride to be? We never hear her voice in this poem--how does that affect your view of her? 4. How do the two middle stanzas (beginning "Open the temple gates unto my love...") stand out from the surrounding stanzas? How, that is, do they render the wedding ceremony special? 5. After the ceremony, the poem moves on towards night. With what qualities does the poet invest night--what kinds of night does he refer to? 6. "Epithalamion" ends on a traditional note about the memorializing power of verse. How has the poem both invited the passage of time and resisted it? Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1A, 1B, 1C. 7th. edition. New York: Norton, 2000. ISBN #'s: 1A = 0393975657, 1B = 0393975665, 1C = 0393975673.
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