Poetry comes in various forms, shapes, and languages. A poem can range from a two-line rhyming couplet to an epic that spans thousands of pages. It can be a facetious limerick that titillates or a nature-inspired haiku that gives food for thought.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge described poetry well when he wrote, "Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in their best order." This week we review a few words for various poetic forms: words that describe the best words in their best order. epithalamion (ep-uh-thuh-LAY-mee-on), also epithalamium, noun A poem or song in honor of a bride and bridegroom. [From Greek epi- (upon) + thalamus (bridal chamber).] If you aren't yet married, don't lose heart. There's a word for you, prothalamion, for a poem or song to celebrate a future marriage. It was coined by the poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) on the pattern of epithalamion. -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "Among the new poems are polemical epigrams, an onomatopoetic tour-de-force about motorcycles, a moving epithalamion, and a rather forced ode to libraries." Mark Rotella; Learning Human; Publishers Weekly (New York); Dec 6, 1999. Sponsors' Messages: Subscribe to http://delanceyplace.com -- a carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free to your email each day. It's the thinking person's daily quote. Always find the right word with the Visual Thesaurus. Wordsmith readers save 10%. Try it free! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?code=qt4&ad=aw ............................................................................ A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1945) Discuss this week's words on our bulletin board: http://wordsmith.org/board Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/epithalamion.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/epithalamion.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/epithalamion.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
