The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Epithalamium (epithalamion)

Epithalamium (epithalamion): From the Greek for “at the bridal chamber,” a poem written to celebrate a specific marriage, to celebrate the bride and groom. An epithalamium was originally sung just outside the room to which the bride and groom retired on their wedding night.

EXAMPLES: Edmund Spenser’s Epithalamion (1595), written to celebrate his own marriage; John Donne’s “Epithalamion, or Marriage Song, On the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine Being Married on St. Valentine’s Day” (1613); e.e. cummings’s “Epithalamion” (in Tulips and Chimneys [1923]).