PROTHALAMION -EDMUND SPENSER

 

PROTHALAMION

                                                                            -EDMUND SPENSER

    It was a calm day with a light breeze in the air, which cooled things down and lessened the heat of the brightly shining sun. I was frustrated with the time I'd wasted at court: my political ambitions had failed, and my hopes turned out to be empty illusions. To make myself feel better, I went for a walk along the banks of the river Thames. The shore and the meadows surrounding the river were covered with flowers—flowers so beautiful that they could be hung up in young women's room, or made into crowns for their fiancés in advance of their wedding day, which is not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    In a meadow by the river, I saw a group of nymphs—the mythological daughters of the river. Their hair was green and hanging down loosely, and they looked like brides. Each of them was carrying a wicker basket woven from twigs and full of flowers that they'd gathered from the meadow. The nymphs quickly and skillfully plucked all kinds of flowers—including blue violets, daisies (which close at night), lilies (which are so white they seem virginal) primroses, and vermeil roses—which they would use to decorate their bridegrooms on their wedding day, which was not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    I saw two beautiful swans swimming down the river Lee. I had never seen such beautiful birds. The snow on top of the famous Pindus mountain range has never been whiter than those swans. Not even the god Zeus, when he transformed himself into a swan in order to seduce the princess Leda, was as white as those swans. And though people say that Leda was as pale as Zeus was, neither Leda nor Zeus came close to being as white as the swans before me in the river. In fact, the swans were so white that even the calm river upon which they swam seemed to make them dirty; as such, the river told his waves not to touch the birds' silky feathers, in order to prevent the waves from dirtying the lovely birds and diminishing their beauty, which was as bright as the sun will be on their wedding day, which was not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    The nymphs, who had by this point collected enough flowers, ran to see those silver swans as they floated down the river. And when they saw them, the nymphs stood in stunned amazement, filling their eyes with the wonderful sight. The nymphs thought that they had never seen such lovely birds, and they assumed that they were angelic, or that they were the mythological swans who drew the goddess Venus's chariot through the sky. The swans were so beautiful it seemed Druid Be Eco-Friendly impossible that they were born from any mortal creature; instead, the nymphs thought they were angels or the children of angels. Yet, the truth is that the swans were bred from the heat of the sun in the spring, when the earth was covered in fresh flowers and plants. They seemed as new and fresh as their wedding day, which was not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    Then the nymphs took out of their baskets all the sweet-smelling flowers they'd picked and threw them onto the swans and onto the waves of the river, so that river seemed like the river Peneus in Greece, which flows through the Tempe Valley in Thessaly. Indeed, the river was so covered in lilies that it seemed like the floor of a bridal chamber. Two of the nymphs wove flower crowns from the freshest flowers they could find in the meadow; they presented these to the swans, who wore them on their foreheads. Meanwhile, another nymph sang the following song, which was prepared for the swans' wedding day, which was not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    "You swans, who are the world's beautiful decoration and the glory of the skies: you are being led to your lovers, and I wish you joy and happiness in your marriage. I further pray that Venus, the queen of love, and her son, Cupid, will smile on you, and with their smiles, remove all fights and conflicts from your marriages. I pray that your hearts will be full of peace, your kitchens full of food, and your bedrooms proper and fruitful, so that your children defeat your enemies, and that your joy will overflow on your wedding day, which is not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem."

    That was the end of the nymph's song, and everyone repeated her, announcing that the swans' wedding day was not far off—and the ground echoed with this line, which then echoed throughout the meadow. Thus, the joyful swans went down the river Lee. Its waters murmured as they passed, almost as though the river would speak to them if he were able to talk. However, he did make his affection clear by slowing down his current. In addition, all the birds that lived on the river began to flock around the two swans, which were far more beautiful than that other birds — just as the moon, is far more beautiful than the stars around it. In this way, they arranged themselves around the swans and waited on them, and lent them their best service for their wedding day, which was not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    After a while, they all came to London, which was where I was born and raised, though I am named after a different place, and come from an old, well-known family. They came to a place where there were brick towers on the banks of the Thames, which serve now as housing for law students, though in the past they were the headquarters of the Knights Templar, until that order crumbled due to pride. Next to the brick towers there is a place where I often received favours from the important man who lives there—whose protection I sorely miss now, though it is inappropriate to meditate on such grievances here, and I should limit myself to talking about the joys of the wedding day, which is not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

               However, in that place there now lives an aristocrat who brings honor to England—and whom the rest of the world admires. On a recent mission, he terrorized the Spanish and made the cliffs on either side of the straits of Gibraltar shake with fear. Operate of honor, exceptional knight, the news of your triumphs travels across England. I hope you take joy in your victory and that you remain happy forever—since even your name promises that you will be happy. In addition, I hope that through your skill and your victories in war, other countries will not be able to harm England. In addition, I hope that Queen Elizabeth's name will be celebrated throughout the world, accompanied by your calls Druid Be Eco-Friendly to arm, which some poet will preserve in song for the rest of human history on the day of the wedding, which is not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

    From the tall battlements of the house, the same aristocrat whom I described above came out like the evening star, Hesperus, who bathes his blond hair in the ocean all day and then rises above the horizon at night. The aristocrat came down to the river with many people following him. Among the crowd, two handsome knights stood out, who would've been a fitting match for any queen. Indeed, they were so intelligent and well-made that they seemed like Zeus's sons, Castor and Pollock, who, in Greek mythology became stars, part of the constellation Gemini. The two knights went down to the river to meet the two swans, whom they loved dearly. At the scheduled time, they will get married, and that wedding day is not far away: please be quiet, river Thames, until I finish my poem.

Themes

The Comfort of Nature:

    At the start of the poem, the speaker identifies himself as someone whose political ambitions have been frustrated. These frustrated ambitions form a kind of frame for everything that follows: they are the reason why the speaker goes out onto the bank of the Thames in the first place. As such, although he does not dwell on his own ambitions, they nevertheless form an important contrast to and backdrop for the poem’s exploration of nature. Walking along the banks of the river eases the speaker’s “pain,” which suggests that nature is a soothing and restorative force. At the same time, the poem subtly but consistently blurs the distinction between nature and the human world.

    In the first stanza, the speaker describes himself as someone who has spent a “long fruitless stay / in prince’s court.” Because the reader learns little else about the speaker, this introduction suggests that he thinks of himself mostly in relation to power: he bases his identity on his ambition and desire to get ahead in politics. In this regard, however, he has notably failed. His time in “prince’s court” has been “idle”—meaning he has not really done anything— and his, ambitions have revealed themselves “empty shadows.” He flees from the vain and empty world of politics into the beautiful, soothing world of nature by walking along the Thames.

    Nature is thus positioned as a restorative space outside the drama of the courtly world. In contrast to the “empty shadows” of the speaker’s political ambition, the natural world is precise and concrete. The speaker spends much of the second stanza, for example, listing specific flowers that he—and the nymphs—encounter. Furthermore, as the speaker describes it, the natural world is courteous and responsive to human needs. For instance, he details in stanza three how the river refuses to wet the swans’ “silken feathers.” As such, when the speaker asks the Thames to “run softly, till I end my song,” there is some reason to believe that the river might actually listen to him; unlike the world of politics, where his ambitions remain fruitless and useless, in nature the world actually responds to the speaker's desires.

    As the poem proceeds however, and the swans float down the Thames, the divide between the human and the natural realms loses its distinction. The same river, for instance, that the speaker turns to for solace from political life also runs by brick towers where law students study and by the house where the respected Earl of Essex lives (described as “a noble Peer, / Great England’s Druid Be Eco-Friendly glory and the world’s wide wonder”). More importantly, the swans that the speaker encounters on the banks of the Thames are preparing to return to London—a city—for their marriage.

    These moments suggest that nature is not absolutely separate from politics. In fact, they suggest that nature in this poem serves as a metaphor for some of the most important moments of people's lives—like the marriages of key political figures. Indeed, the swans specifically serve as metaphors for Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset, daughters of the Earl of Somerset; the poem was initially written in celebration of their weddings. Thus even though these moments that reference the human, cosmopolitan world seem somewhat out of place—maybe even extraneous—they still shape the way one reads the poem and its description of a beautiful natural world. Overall, they suggest that nature is not purely a space of comfort and retreat, but that it is also intimately linked to human political life.

Marriage and Natural World:

    Though the poem describes the natural world as a space of comfort and beauty, the speaker doesn't always enjoy nature for its own sake. Instead, he focuses on the way that the natural world might be used for human ends—for example, for something like marriage. This is fitting for a poem originally written to celebrate two politically important engagements—that of Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset, the daughters of the Earl of Somerset. By focusing on the natural world as he celebrates these betrothals, the speaker suggests that a proper marriage is actually part of nature; such a marriage follows the natural order, the poem argues, and also uses nature for both its celebrations and as a model for how a good partnership should look.

    The speaker reflects on the beauty of the natural world as he walks along the river. He notes its many flowers, and imagines a specific use for them: these flowers are pretty enough to decorate young women's rooms, as well as to adorn their soon-to-be-husbands on their wedding day. The speaker doesn't just enjoy nature for its own sake; he wants to use it to glorify the ritual of marriage.

    Similarly, in the second stanza, the speaker sees a group of nymphs out gathering flowers. The end of the stanza reveals that they are doing so specifically for wedding decorations. The nymphs then use the flowers in stanza 5, throwing their petals onto the river as the two swans (representing the brides-to-be for whom the poem was written) pass and making flower crowns for them. For the speaker, this transforms the natural world into a very human space: the harvested flowers make the river seem like a bridal chamber, thereby directly including nature in this human experience, and also making the human ritual seem all the more natural.

    Likewise, the nymph's song in stanza 6 describes the wedding bed as a “blissful bower.” The description is traditional in the English Renaissance, but in the context of this particular poem it seems especially significant. Just as the nymphs work to make nature part of the wedding ceremony, so too is the place where the wedding will be consummated compared, metaphorically, to a natural space.

    As the nymph’s song continues, she outlines what a successful marriage looks like: a union filled with peace, harmony, and fruitfulness. It seems almost as though she is describing the condition of the pastoral world along the banks of the river Thames, with its abundance of flowers and happy nymphs. In this sense, the poem makes an argument about what marriage actually is. A successful marriage, in the speaker’s opinion, is one which makes use of the comfort nature while also directly taking on nature’s most beautiful and peaceful characteristics. The distinction between natural abundance and the human institution of marriage is ultimately a false one, and Druid Be Eco-Friendly the poem works to show its readers how one serves the other. In other words, a good marriage is entirely natural, and like the natural world, it is filled with beauty, peace, and abundance.

    Of course, the marriages-to-be of Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset are importantly different from modern marriages, which stress companionship and compatibility between partners. Marriage in Spencer’s time was as much a political alliance as a matter of the heart. For Spencer’s readers, then, the intrusion of marriage into the natural world would mark another place where the distinction between politics and nature breaks down. By drawing his readers attention to nature as a model for marriage, Spencer attempts to bring the lessons of nature into politics, rather than separating the two.

The Fragility of Perfection :

    The world of the “Prothalamion” seems utterly perfect—almost unbelievably so. The weather’s calm and warm, but not too hot. The flowers are all in bloom. The river refuses to wet the swans’ “silken feathers,” and the grooms are so handsome they look like the sons of a god. If this seems a bit hyperbolic, the speaker gives readers a series of hints that there lingers darker, more violent dynamics under the surface of this perfect beauty. The poem’s gorgeous celebration of marriage and political order is actually somewhat equivocal and ambiguous in the end: even as it celebrates nature, it marks the way that nature is marred by decay and violence. The perfection the poem displays is conditional, under threat, and possibly a fantasy.

    For instance, in the opening lines of the poem, the speaker notes the delicacy and beauty of the weather. Yet he describes this perfection as temporary: “Zephyrus” might “delay / Hot Titans beams.” It’s unclear how long this delay can last, and the word “delay” itself suggests that it definitely won't last forever; it can only be forestalled. Eventually, the unpleasant characteristics of nature will return—and so too, will the darker side of marriage.

    Similarly in stanza 3, the speaker compares the two swans to “Jove himself when he a swan would be / For love of Leda." The ostensible purpose of the comparison is to emphasize how pure and white these swans are. But in making the comparison, the speaker introduces some dark and unsettling material. In the myth of Leda and the Swan, Zeus transforms himself into a swan and rapes Leda—an act which, eventually, precipitates the Trojan war.

    The presence of this violent and disturbing myth in a poem celebrating marriage suggests that the speaker may have his doubts about the marriages in question—or about marriage in general. Though he presents a vision of a perfect, balanced marriage, he suggests that this balance is under threat, and perhaps unsustainable—just as “Hot Titans beams” can only be delayed, not prevented altogether. That the speaker repeatedly asks the river to be quiet and gentle while he recites his poem also suggests that he knows the roar of the river will return soon enough, and that the marriage day is only a momentary respite from harsh reality of the world.

    There is thus a tension at the heart of the poem: even as it celebrates nature and its beauty, it also recognizes how fragile that beauty is. It marks the way that beauty is under threat—and may actually contain the seeds of violence that will undo the political order (in other words, the marriage) that emerges from it. This might be read as a call to honor this beauty while it lasts, or as a reminder to be wary of potential marital complications that could disturb the peace and harmony marriage is meant to create.