"Fernando Pessoa's Epithalamium is an extensive poem written in English, featuring 377 lines divided into 21 sections of varying lengths, employing irregular meter and rhyme. Composed in 1913, shortly before the creation of his heteronyms, it was published in 1921 as English Poems III by Pessoa himself. Alongside Antinous, published around the same time in English Poems I-II, it represents a unique instance of erotic poetry within Pessoa's oeuvre.
The epithalamium, a nuptial poem rooted in Greco-Latin tradition, is tailored to a specific occasion or depicts a particular circumstance. It originated from popular wedding festivities where young people would sing around the newlyweds. Inherited from Classical Antiquity, this form of circumstantial and laudatory poetry was revived in Renaissance Italy through beautiful imitations of classical epithalamiums, continuing into the 17th and 18th centuries, where it exaggerated its original playful character, leading to crude and gratuitous eroticism.
In Portugal, the epithalamium was introduced by Sá de Miranda and continued to be cultivated regularly throughout the 17th century, remaining somewhat insignificant until the 19th. Notable practitioners included António Ferreira, Cruz e Silva, Reis Quita, and in composite genres, Jerónimo Baía and D. Francisco Manuel de Melo.
Portuguese epithalamiums were typically composed to celebrate marriages among the nobility of the time, thereby losing the erotic and libidinous nature they possessed in Roman civilization and later in the Arcadian Italy. By adopting a cultured and distant discourse, they gained the elevated and noble tone of an ode.
This licentious spirit of ancient Rome was revived by F. Pessoa, who, in a well-known letter to João Gaspar Simões dated November 18, 1930, referred to this poem as "direct and bestial." In the same letter, while attempting to explain why Antinous and Epithalamium "are the only poems that can be called obscene," he mentioned a kind of purification of the elements of "obscenity" that may exist within it, which hindered full realization and posed "an obstacle to certain higher mental processes." Thus, he decided to "eliminate them by the simple process of expressing them intensely." Additionally, in this letter, he revealed that these two poems, along with three other unpublished works, were intended to form a "book that traverses the circle of the amorous phenomenon," noting the Roman lineage of Epithalamium. He outlined what he termed the five components of this "imperial" cycle: (1) Greece, Antinous; (2) Rome, Epithalamium; (3) Christendom, Prayer to a Woman's Body; (4) Modern Empire, Pan-Eros; (5) Fifth Empire, Anteros.
These two poems, published in the same year, were the only "clearly obscene" ones in the series, according to the author, creating a cohesive whole with an exorcizing and purifying character that, although written in adulthood, might represent a liberation from old youthful ghosts related to sex. Perhaps that is why they were written in English.
Throughout the twenty-one stanzas or sections of Epithalamium, we can closely follow the celebration and its preparations, from the gradual awakening of the bride to the consummation of the nuptial act, which the entire poem builds towards through various gradations and an obsessive crescendo. The time that spans from one dawn to another is distinctly allocated in the narrative. In fact, six stanzas (I-VI) are dedicated to the lengthy description of the bride's slow awakening, a mixture of fear and pleasure; in the next three stanzas (VII-IX), we observe her rising and dressing with the help of the maidens; then, in just four more segments (X-XIV), we have the departure from the chamber, the arrival of guests, the decorated house, the journey to and from the church, and the joy of the wedding; the following five sections (XV-XIX) are filled with erotic memories of the elderly and adults, as well as attempts to recapture pleasures and sensations during the celebration; finally, the last two stanzas (XX-XXI) depict the wedding night and the mutual pleasure of the bodies until dawn.
Pessoa's Epithalamium stands apart from other Portuguese epithalamiums, not only due to its excessively erotic treatment of the theme but also because of its overall character—an anonymous bride, an undated wedding, a nonspecific location. It is only known to be a Christian marriage due to the brief reference to the church, as everything else unfolds in a completely pagan atmosphere dominated by sensations, where sex takes centre stage. This euphoric and Dionysian environment is enhanced by a profusion of colours and sounds, along with vibrant imagery of movement, light, and warmth, awakening a variety of visual, auditory, and tactile sensations that progressively intensify and envelop the bodies and minds of those involved. Indeed, right from the beginning, the first stanzas are introduced by the epithalamic exhortation, "Open the windows for the day to enter," which is later employed in various forms. The discourse flows freely and swiftly, without major aesthetic concerns, while the entire erotic gradation is punctuated by recurring comparisons to the animal world, attributing something genuinely "bestial" to the union through sex.
The persistent rhythm, characterized by repetitions at multiple levels, the predominantly paired rhyme, and the abundant punctuation all contribute to the obsessive atmosphere surrounding the poem."
Luisa Freire
-
This offers a glimpse of what lies ahead in the first volume.
Enjoy your reading.