Stanza 13
Summary
The bride stands before the altar as the priest offers his blessing upon her and upon the marriage. She blushes, causing the angels to forget their duties and encircle here, while the groom wonders why she should blush to give him her hand in marriage.
Analysis
Now firmly entrenched in the Christian wedding ceremony, the poem dwells upon the bride's reaction to the priest's blessing, and the groom's reaction to his bride's response. Her blush sends him toward another song about her beauty, but he hesitates to commit wholly to that. A shadow of doubt crosses his mind, as he describes her downcast eyes as "sad" and wonders why making a pledge to marry him should make her blush.
Stanza 14
Summary
The Christian part of the wedding ceremony is over, and the groom asks that the bride to be brought home again and the celebration to start. He calls for feasting and drinking, turning his attention from the "almighty" God of the church to the "God Bacchus," Hymen, and the Graces.
Analysis
Spenser slips easily (perhaps even hastily) away from teh Protestant wedding ceremony back to the pagan revelries. Forgotten is the bride's humility at the altar of the Christian God; instead he crowns Bacchus, god of wine and revelry, and Hymen was requesting the Graces to dance. Now he wants to celebrate his "triumph" with wine "poured out without restraint or stay" and libations to the aforementioned gods. He considers this day to be holy for himself, perhaps seeing it as an answer to his previous imprecation to Phoebus that this day belong to him alone.
Stanza 15
Summary
The groom reiterates his affirmation that this day is holy and calls everyone to celebrate in response to the ringing bells. He exults that the sun is so bright and the day so beautiful, then changes his tone to regret as he realize his wedding is taking place on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and so his nighttime nuptial bliss will be delayed all the longer, yet last only briefly.
Analysis
By identifying the exact day of the wedding (the summer solstice, June 20), Spenser allows the reader to fit this poetic description of the ceremony into a real, historical context. As some critics have noted, a timeline of the day superimposed over the verse structure of the entire ode produces an accurate, line-by-line account of the various astronomical events (sunrise, the position of the stars, sunset).
Stanza 16
Summary
The groom continues his frustrated complaint that the day is too long, but grows hopeful as at long last the evening begins its arrival. Seeing the evening start in the East, he addresses is as "Fayre childe of beauty, glorious lampe of loue," urging it to come forward and hasten the time for the newlyweds to consummate their marriage.
Analysis
Again focused on time, the speaker here is able to draw hope from the approach of twilight. He is eager to be alone with his bride, and so invokes the evening star to lead the bride and groom to their bedchamber.
Stanza 17
Summary
The groom urges the singers and dancers to leave the wedding, but take the bride to her bed as they depart. He is eager to be alone with his bride, and compares the sight of her lying in bed to that of Maia, the mountain goddess with whom Zeus conceived Hermes.
Analysis
The comparison to Zeus and Maia is significant in that it foreshadows another desire of the groom, procreation. Besides being eager to make love to his new bride, the speaker is also hoping to conceive a child. According to legend and tradition, a child conceived on the summer solstice would grow into prosperity and wisdom, so the connection to the specific day of the wedding cannot be ignored.
Stanza 18
Night has come at last, and the groom asks Night to cover and protect them. He makes another comparison to mythology, this time Zeus' affair with Alcmene and his affair with Night herself.
Analysis
Here again Spenser uses a classical allusion to Zeus, mentioning not only the woman with whom Zeus had relations, but also their offspring. Alcmene was a daughter of Pleiades and, through Zeus, became the mother of Hercules. The focus has almost shifted away from the bride or the act of consummation to the potential child that may come of this union.
Stanza 19
Summary
The groom prays that no evil spirits or bad thoughts would reach the newlyweds this night. The entire stanza is a list of possible dangers he pleads to leave them alone.
Analysis
At the moment the bride and groom are finally alone, the speaker shifts into an almost hysterical litany of fears and dreads. From false whispers and doubts, he declines into superstitious fear of witches, "hob Goblins," ghosts, and vultures, among others. Although some of these night-terrors have analogs in Greek mythology, many of them come from the folklore of the Irish countryside. Spenser reminds himself and his readers that, as a landed Englishman on Irish soil, there is danger yet present for him, even on his wedding night.
Stanza 20
Summary
The groom bids silence to prevail and sleep to come when it is the proper time. Until then, he encourages the "hundred little winged loues" to fly about the bed. These tiny Cupids are to enjoy themselves as much as possible until daybreak.
Analysis
The poet turns back to enjoying his beloved bride, invoking the "sonnes of Venus" to play throughout the night. While he recognizes that sleep can and must come eventually, he hopes to enjoy these "little loves" with his bride as much as possible.
Stanza 21
Summary
The groom notices Cinthia, the moon, peering through his window and prays to her for a favorable wedding night. He specifically asks that she make his bride's "chaste womb" fertile this night.
Analysis
Spenser continues his prayer for conception, this time addressing Cinthia, the moon. He asks her to remember her own love of the "Latmian shephard" Endymion--a union that eventually produced fifty daughters, the phases of the moon. He specifically calls a successful conception "our comfort," placing his emotional emphasis upon the fruit of the union above the act of union itself. The impatient lover of the earlier stanzas has become the would-be father looking for completion in a future generation.
Stanza 22
Summary
The groom adds more deities to his list of patron. He asks Juno, wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage, to make their union strong and sacred, then turns her attention toward making it fruitful. So, too, he asks Hebe and Hymen to do the same for them.
Analysis
While asking Juno to bless the marriage, the speaker cannot refrain from asking for progeny. So, too, he invokes Hebe (goddess of youth) and Hymen to make their wedding night one of fortunate conception as well as wedded bliss. While he does return to the hope or prayer that the marriage will remain pure, the speaker still places conception as the highest priority of the night.
Stanza 23
Summary
The groom utters and all-encompassing prayer to all the gods in the heavens, that they might bless this marriage. He asks them to give him "large posterity" that he may raise up generations of followers to ascend to the heavens in praise of the gods. He then encourages his bride to rest in hope of their becoming parents.
Analysis
Spenser brings this ode to a major climax, calling upon all the gods in the heavens to bear witness and shower their blessings upon the couple. He states in no uncertain terms that the blessing he would have is progeny--he wishes nothing other than to have a child from this union. In typical pagan bargaining convention, the speaker assures the gods that if they give him children, these future generations will venerate the gods and fill the earth with "Saints."
Stanza 24
Summary
The groom addresses his song with the charge to be a "goodly ornament" for his bride, whom he feels deserves many physical adornments as well. Time was too short to procure these outward decorations for his beloved, so the groom hopes his ode will be an "endlesse moniment" to her.
Analysis
Spenser follows Elizabeth convention in returning to a self-conscious meditation upon his ode itself. He asks that this ode, which he is forced to give her in place of the many ornaments which his bride should have had, will become an altogether greater adornment for her. He paradoxically asks that it be "for short time" and "endless" monument for her, drawing the reader's attention back to the contrast between earthly time, which eventually runs out, and eternity, which lasts forever in a state of perfection.
