Trace the occurrences of the musical motif of singing in Spenser's Epithalamion and note the changes relating to time of day.

One musical motif that relates to the time of day and
changes through the course of Spenser's Epithalamion is the singing
that occurs above and leading into the 17 variations of the
refrain:

The
woods shall to me answer and my echo
ring.

The refrain at the end
of each of the 23 full stanzas [the 24th is an envoy: A short closing stanza in certain
verse forms, ... summarizing its main ideas (Dictionary.com)] is introduced by a
progression of who sings to whom and for what purpose. The singing reflects the movement
of the poem from the groom's solitary musing before the break of day through to the
height of the wedding festivities, which stretch from bright day into dark of night, to
the welcome solitude of the new-wed couple alone in the cover of darkest night that
returns them to where the groom began before break of day.

In stanza
one and before dawn, the groom (the poetic speaker and groom is Spenser himself)
beseeches "Ye learned sister," his Muses, to adorn their hair in garlands of flowers and
help him sing the praises of his beloved:

readability="7">

And having all your heads with girland
crownd,
Helpe me mine owne loves prayses to
resound;
[...]
So Orpheus did for his owne bride:
So I
unto my selfe alone will
sing;

His song, sung alone,
will ring in echo as the woods answer with their own song. As John B. Lord details, the
groom's early morning starlit solitude changes in stages as he bids the sun arise then
awaken his love and "to her of joy and solace sing." Then he bids the nymphs to "deck
the bridale bowers" of morning and "this song unto her sing."

As the
stanzas progress, with the woods answering each who sing while the day grows lighter, so
does the singing progress and change. For example, after daybreak,  when he bids his
love awake, he seeks that she may "hearken to the birds love-learned song." After
finally sending his guests home at late night, he bids the dark of deep night to be a
cover to his union with his fair love while silence replaces the song of joy sung during
the day:

readability="9">

Conceald through covert night.
Ye
sonnes of Venus, play your sports at will:
[...]
For it will soone
be day:
Now none doth hinder you, that say or
sing,

The groom finally bids
all to be still at the early hours before daybreak, returning to the hour at which he
began his song:

readability="10">

So let us rest, sweet love, in hope of
this,
And cease till then our tymely joyes to sing:
The woods no
more us answer, nor our eccho
ring.