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prothalamion
Mar. 23rd, 2021 07:50 amprothalamion (proh-thuh-LAY-mee-on) - n., a song or poem in celebration of a wedding.
A complete and exact synonym for epithalamion, which is the original Ancient Greek word for a "song for a wedding" (literal meaning). However, comma, when Edmund Spenser wrote one in 1596 for the double-marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worcester, he had the problem that he had already published a major "Epithalamion" two years before, for his own marriage. So he snipped off the epi- and stuck on another Greek prefix with nearly the same meaning and viola! -- a new name for the genre.
(For several centuries, critical opinion was that his "Prothalamion" was the the better poem, a valuation I find inexplicable, and one test I apply to poetry anthologies is which the editor prefers -- if it isn't "Epithalamion," it is clearly an inferior collection.)
---L.
A complete and exact synonym for epithalamion, which is the original Ancient Greek word for a "song for a wedding" (literal meaning). However, comma, when Edmund Spenser wrote one in 1596 for the double-marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worcester, he had the problem that he had already published a major "Epithalamion" two years before, for his own marriage. So he snipped off the epi- and stuck on another Greek prefix with nearly the same meaning and viola! -- a new name for the genre.
(For several centuries, critical opinion was that his "Prothalamion" was the the better poem, a valuation I find inexplicable, and one test I apply to poetry anthologies is which the editor prefers -- if it isn't "Epithalamion," it is clearly an inferior collection.)
---L.
