The Literary World

 There  in a meadow, by the river side,

A flocke  of Nymphs I chaunced to espy,

All lovely daughters of the flood thereby,

With goodly greenish locks, all loose untyde”

Reference:-The above stanza is taken from the poem ‘Prothalamion’ by Edmund Spenser, written in 1595.

Content:-The poem is a wedding description of Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset, the daughters of the ‘Earl of Somerset’. The poet termed the word Prothalamion from ‘Epithalamion’ (wedding song), unlike Epithalamion (which celebrates a wedding), Prothalamion in contrast is more like a political event of that period. Therefore, the poem Prothalamion meditates the relationship between marriage, nature and politics.

Explanation:– In a meadow by the river, I saw a group of nymphs (the mythological daughters of the river). The given stanza describes the beauty of brides i.e. Elizabethan and Katherine, describing their hair, poet says that their loose untied locks (curly hair) adds beauty to the bride. Each of them was carrying a wicker basket woven from twigs and full of flowers that they’d gathered from the meadow.

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