Song of Songs: A Commentary

SONG OF SONGS

THE OLD TESTAMENT LIBRARY

Editorial Advisory Board

WILLIAM P. BROWN

CAROL A. NEWSOM

BRENT A. STRAWN

COMMENTARY SERIES

GENESIS. Revised Edition. BY GERHARD VON RAD

THE BOOK OF EXODUS. BY BREVARD S. CHILDS

LEVITICUS. BY ERHARD S. GERSTENBERGER

NUMBERS. BY MARTIN NOTH

DEUTERONOMY. BY RICHARD D. NELSON

DEUTERONOMY. BY GERHARD VON RAD

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JUDGES. BY J. ALBERTO SOGGIN

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I & II KINGS. BY MARVIN A. SWEENEY

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EZRA-NEHEMIAH. BY JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP

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THE BOOK OF JOB. BY NORMAN C. HABEL

THE PSALMS. BY ARTUR WEISER

PROVERBS. BY RICHARD J. CLIFFORD

ECCLESIASTES. BY JAMES L. CRENSHAW

SONG OF SONGS. BY J. CHERYL EXUM

ISAIAH. BY BREVARD S. CHILDS

ISAIAH 1–12. SECOND EDITION. BY OTTO KAISER

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ISAIAH 40–66. BY CLAUS WESTERMANN

JEREMIAH. BY LESLIE C. ALLEN

LAMENTATIONS. BY ADELE BERLIN

EZEKIEL. BY WALTHER EICHRODT

DANIEL. BY NORMAN W. PORTEOUS

HOSEA. BY JAMES L. MAYS

JOEL AND OBADIAH. BY JOHN BARTON

AMOS. BY JAMES L. MAYS

THE BOOK OF AMOS. BY JÖRG JEREMIAS

JONAH. BY JAMES LIMBURG

MICAH. BY JAMES L. MAYS

NAHUM, HABAKKUK, AND ZEPHANIAH. BY J. J. M. ROBERTS

HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 1–8. BY DAVID L. PETERSEN

ZECHARIAH 9–14 AND MALACHI. BY DAVID L. PETERSEN

GENERAL STUDIES

EXILE AND RESTORATION: A STUDY OF HEBREW THOUGHT OF THE SIXTH CENTURY B.C. BY PETER R. ACKROYD

A HISTORY OF ISRAELITE RELIGION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PERIOD, Volumes I and II. BY RAINER ALBERTZ

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. Third Edition. BY J. ALBERTO SOGGIN

JEWISH WISDOM IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE. BY JOHN J. COLLINS

OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY, Volumes I and II. BY HORST DIETRICH PREUSS

OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY, Volumes I and II. BY GERHARD VON RAD

THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, Volumes I and II. BY WALTHER EICHRODT

J. Cheryl Exum

Song of Songs

A Commentary

© 2005 J. Cheryl Exum

2011 paperback edition

Originally published in hardback in the United States

by Westminster John Knox Press in 2005

Louisville, Kentucky

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Research for this commentary was supported in part by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now the Arts and Humanities Research Council) in the United Kingdom.

my love. Copyright 1923, 1951, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904–1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Bella [Beauty] is copyright © Brian Cole, 1994; used by permission.

Book design by Jennifer K. Cox

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

ISBN-10: 0-664-22190-4 (hardback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-664-23841-4 (paperback)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Select Bibliography

Introduction

1A Love Poem

2Love and Death

3Controlling Poetic Strategies

The Illusion of Immediacy

Conjuring

The Invitation to the Reader

The Lovers as Representing All Lovers

Blurring Distinctions between Anticipation and Enjoyment of Love

Love Forever in Progress: Repetition and Resistance to Closure

4Gendered Love-Talk and the Relation of the Sexes

Different Ways of Speaking about Love

Lovesick and Awestruck

Speaking Metaphorically about the Female and Male Body

Erotic Look or Voyeuristic Gaze?

The Song and Conventional Gender Relations

5Poetic Composition and Style

Text and Translation

A Masterpiece of Pure Poetry

One Poem or Many?

Literary Arrangement and Its Significance

Lyric Poetry and Reading for the Plot

Fantasy, Reality, and Poetic Imagination

6The Song of Songs and Its World

Literary Context: Ancient Near Eastern Love Poetry

Historical-Cultural Context

Social World

A Book of the Bible

7The Song of Songs and Its Readers

Allegorical Interpretation

The Dramatic Theory

Wedding Songs

Cultic Interpretation

Feminist Criticism

Privileging the Reader

COMMENTARY

1:1                        Superscription

1:2–4                   The Voice of Desire

1:5–2:7                A Dialogue about Love

2:8–3:5                The Woman’s First Long Speech

3:6–11                 The Woman’s First Long Speech, A Continuation

4:1–5:1                The Man’s First Long Speech

5:2–6:3                The Woman’s Second Long Speech

6:4–7:9 [10 H]    The Man’s Second Long Speech

7:10–13                The Woman’s Reply

    [11–14 H]

8:1–14                  A Dialogue about Love

ABBREVIATIONS

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Commentaries in Series

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Budde, Karl. Das Hohelied. KHAT 17. Freiburg im Breisgau: Mohr, 1898.

Carr, G. Lloyd. The Song of Solomon: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1984.

Delitzsch, F. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Translated by James Martin. Commentary on the Old Testament VI. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980 [1872].

Garrett, Duane. Song of Songs. WBC 23B. Nashville: Word, 2004.

Gerleman, Gillis. Ruth. Das Hohelied. BKAT 18. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neu -kirchener Verlag, 1965.

Haller, Max. Ruth, Hoheslied, Klagelieder, Esther. HAT 18. Tübingen: Mohr, 1940.

Harper, Andrew. The Song of Solomon with Introduction and Notes. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907.

Keel, Othmar. The Song of Songs. Translated by Frederick J. Gaiser. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994 [German original: Das Hohelied. ZBAT 18. Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1986].

Krinetzki, Günter (=Leo). Kommentar zum Hohenlied: Bildsprache und theo -logische Botschaft. BBET 16. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1981. [All references to Krinetzki are to the 1964 monograph below unless otherwise noted.]

———. Hoheslied. Neue Echter Bibel. Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1980.

Longman, III, Tremper. The Song of Songs. NICOT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.

Meek, Theophile J. The Song of Songs: Introduction and Exegesis. IB 5 (1956): 91–148.

Müller, Hans-Peter. Das Hohelied. ATD 16/2. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992.

Murphy, Roland E. The Song of Songs: A Commentary on the Book of Canticles or the Song of Songs. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990

Pope, Marvin H. Song of Songs: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB 7C. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977.

Provan, Iain W. Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. NIVAC. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.

Ringgren, Helmer. Das Hohe Lied. ATD 16. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967.

Rudolph, Wilhelm. Das Buch Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Die Klagelieder. KAT XVII, 1–3. Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1962.

Snaith, John G. The Song of Songs. NCB. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Weems, Renita J. The Song of Songs: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections. NIB 5 (1997): 361–434.

Würthwein, Ernst. Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Esther. HAT 18. Tübingen: Mohr, 1969.

Zakovitch, Yair. Das Hohelied. HThKAT. Freiburg: Herder, 2004.*

Books and Monographs

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Ayo, Nicholas. Sacred Marriage: The Wisdom of the Song of Songs. Words by Nicholas Ayo and paintings by Meinrad Craighead. New York: Continuum, 1997.

Black, Fiona C. The Grotesque Body in the Song of Songs. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sheffield, 1999 [=1999a].

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Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Brenner, Athalya. The Intercourse of Knowledge: On Gendering Desire and ‘Sexuality’ in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical Interpretation Series 26. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Brenner, Athalya, and Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes. On Gendering Texts: Female and Male Voices in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical Interpretation Series 1. Leiden: Brill, 1993.

Brenner, Athalya, ed. A Feminist Companion to the Song of Songs. The Feminist Companion to the Bible 1. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993.

Brenner, Athalya, and Carole R. Fontaine, eds. The Song of Songs: A Feminist Companion to the Bible (Second Series). Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.

Brooks, Peter. Body Work: Objects of Desire in Modern Narrative. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Cook, Albert. The Root of the Thing: A Study of Job and the Song of Songs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

Dahood, Mitchell. Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology. BibOr 17. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1965.

Elliott, M. Timothea. The Literary Unity of the Canticle. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1989.

Falk, Marcia. Love Lyrics from the Bible: A Translation and Literary Study of the Song of Songs. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1982.

———. The Song of Songs: A New Translation and Interpretation. Illustrated by Barry Moser. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990. [All references to Falk are to this book, unless otherwise noted.]

Foster, John L. Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Love Poetry. SBLWAW. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.

———. Love Songs of the New Kingdom Translated from the Ancient Egyp -tian. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

Fox, Michael V. The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.

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Gordis, Robert. The Song of Songs and Lamentations: A Study, Modern Translation and Commentary. Rev. and augmented ed. New York: Ktav, 1974.

Goulder, Michael D. The Song of Fourteen Songs. JSOTSup 36. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986.

Grossberg, Daniel. Centripetal and Centrifugal Structures in Biblical Poetry. SBLMS 39. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.

Harding, Kathryn. The Song of Songs and the Construction of Desire in the Hebrew Bible. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sheffield, forthcoming.

Heinevetter, Hans-Josef. Komm nun, mein Liebster, Dein Garten ruft Dich!: Das Hohelied als programmatische Komposition. BBB 69. Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1988.

Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Harps That Once …: Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

———. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.

Keel, Othmar. Deine Blicke sind Tauben: Zur Metaphorik des Hohen Liedes. SBB 114/115. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1984.

Kramer, Samuel Noah. The Sacred Marriage Rite: Aspects of Faith, Myth, and Ritual in Ancient Sumer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.

Krinetzki, Leo (= Günter). Das Hohe Lied: Kommentar zu Gestalt und Kerygma eines alttestamentarischen Liebesliedes. Düsseldorf: Patmos, 1964. [All references to Krinetzki are to this monograph unless otherwise noted.]

LaCocque, André. Romance She Wrote: A Hermeneutical Essay on Song of Songs. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998.

Landy, Francis. Paradoxes of Paradise: Identity and Difference in the Song of Songs. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1983. [All references to Landy are to this monograph unless otherwise noted.]

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Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. II: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

Loretz, Oswald. Das althebräische Liebeslied. AOAT 14/1. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1971.

———. Gotteswort und menschliche Erfahrung: Eine Auslegung der Bücher Jona, Rut, Hoheslied und Qohelet. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1963. [All references are to the 1971 version, which is more extensive.]

Mariaselvam, Abraham. The Song of Songs and Ancient Tamil Love Poems. AnBib 118. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1988.

Marsman, Hennie J. Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their Social and Religious Position in the Context of the Ancient Near East. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Meyers, Carol. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

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Munro, Jill M. Spikenard and Saffron: A Study in the Poetic Language of the Song of Songs. JSOTSup 203. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995.

Perles, Felix. Analekten zur Textkritik des Alten Testaments (NF). Leipzig: Gustav Engel, 1922.

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Tournay, Raymond Jacques. Quand Dieu parle aux hommes le langage de l’amour: Études sur le Cantique des Cantiques. Paris: J. Gabalda, 1982 [ET = Word of God, Song of Love: A Commentary on the Song of Songs, trans. J. Edward Crowley. New York: Paulist Press, 1988].

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Articles and Chapters in Books

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Angénieux, J. Le Cantique des Cantiques en huit chants à refrains alternants. ETL 44 (1968): 87–140.

———. Les trois portraits du Cantique des Cantiques. ETL 42 (1966): 582–86.

———. Structure du Cantique des Cantiques. ETL 41 (1965): 96–142.

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———. Die ‘Wagen meines edlen Volkes’ (Hld 6, 12): eine strukturelle Analyse. Bib 78 (1997): 174–89.

Bekkenkamp, Jonneke. Into Another Scene of Choices: The Theological Value of the Song of Songs. In Brenner and Fontaine (eds.) 2000: 55–89.

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———. Nocturnal Egression: Exploring Some Margins of the Song of Songs. In Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible—A Reader, ed. A. K. M. Adam, 93–104. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001.

———. Unlikely Bedfellows: Allegorical and Feminist Readings of Song of Songs 7.1–8. In Brenner and Fontaine (eds.) 2000: 104–29 [=2000b].

———. What Is My Beloved? On Erotic Reading and the Song of Songs. In The Labour of Reading: Desire, Alienation, and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Fiona C. Black, Roland Boer, and Erin Runions, 35–52. Semeia Studies. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999 [=1999b].

Black, Fiona C., and J. Cheryl Exum. Semiotics in Stained Glass: Edward Burne-Jones’s Song of Songs. In Biblical Studies/Cultural Studies: The Third Sheffield Colloquium, ed. J. Cheryl Exum and Stephen D. Moore, 315–42. JSOTSup 266, GCT 7. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.

Boer, Roland. Night Sprinkle(s): Pornography and the Song of Songs. In Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door: The Bible and Popular Culture, 53–70. London: Routledge, 1999.

———. The Second Coming: Repetition and Insatiable Desire in the Song of Songs. BibInt 8 (2000): 276–301.

Boyarin, Daniel. The Song of Songs: Lock or Key? Intertextuality, Allegory and Midrash. In The Book and the Text: The Bible and Literary Theory, ed. Regina M. Schwartz, 214–30. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.

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———. "‘Come Back, Come Back the Shulammite’ (Song of Songs 7.1–10): A Parody of the wa f Genre." In Brenner (ed.) 1993: 234–57. Repr. from On Humour and the Comic in the Hebrew Bible, ed. A. Brenner and Y. T. Radday, 251–76. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1990 [=1993a].

———. ‘My’ Song of Songs. In Brenner and Fontaine (eds.) 2000: 154–68.

———. To See Is to Assume: Whose Love Is Celebrated in the Song of Songs? BibInt 1 (1993): 265–84 [=1993b].

———. Women Poets and Authors. In Brenner (ed.) 1993: 86–97 [=1993c].

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Burrus, Virginia, and Stephen D. Moore. Unsafe Sex: Feminism, Pornography, and the Song of Songs. BibInt 11 (2003): 24–52.

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Butting, Klara. Go Your Way: Women Rewrite the Scriptures (Song of Songs 2.8–14). In Brenner and Fontaine (eds.) 2000: 142–51.

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Carr, David M. Gender and the Shaping of Desire in the Song of Songs and Its Interpretations. JBL 119 (2000): 233–48.

———. The Song of Songs as a Microcosm of the Canonization and Decanonization Process. In Canonization and Decanonization, ed. Arie van der Kooij and K. van der Toorn, 173–89. Leiden: Brill, 1998.

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———. Sacred Marriage and Popular Cult in Early Mesopotamia. In Official Cult and Popular Religion in the Ancient Near East, ed. Eiko Matsushima, 81–96. Heidelberg: Winter, 1993.

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———. Hebrew Notes. ZAW 52 (1934): 51–56.

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———. Problems and Solutions. VT 4 (1954): 225–45.

———. I. Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament. JTS 31 (1929–30): 275–84.

———. Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament II.JTS 32 (1930–31): 250–57.

———. Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament VI.JTS 34 (1933): 375–85.

———. Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament VII.JTS 35 (1934): 380–93.

———. Supposed Arabisms in the Old Testament. JBL 55 (1936): 101–20.

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———. How Does the Song of Songs Mean? On Reading the Poetry of Desire. SEÅ 64 (1999): 47–63 [= 1999a].

———. "In the Eye of the Beholder: Wishing, Dreaming, and double entendre in the Song of Songs." In The Labour of Reading: Desire, Alienation, and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Fiona C. Black, Roland Boer, and Erin Runions, 71–86. Semeia Studies. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999 [= 1999b].

———. A Literary and Structural Analysis of the Song of Songs. ZAW 85 (1973):47–79.

———. Seeing Solomon’s Palanquin (Song of Songs 3:6–11). BibInt 11 (2003): 301–16.

———. Seeing the Song of Songs. In Cultural Industry: The Bible and the Arts. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, forthcoming.

———. Ten Things Every Feminist Should Know about the Song of Songs. In Brenner and Fontaine (eds.) 2000: 24–35.

———. ‘The Voice of My Lover’: Double Voice and Poetic Illusion in Song of Songs 2.8–3.5. In Reading from Right to Left: Essays in Honour of David J. A. Clines, ed. J. Cheryl Exum and H. G. M. Williamson, 146–57. JSOT-Sup 373. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003.

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———. Women as Creators of Biblical Genres. Prooftexts 8 (1988): 1–33.

Good, Edwin M. Ezekiel’s Ship: Some Extended Metaphors in the Old Testament. Semitics 1 (1970): 79–102.

Goodspeed, Edgar J. The Shulammite. AJSL 50 (1934): 102–4.

Gordon, Cyrus H. New Directions. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 15 (1978): 59–66.

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———. The Book of Canticles. AJSL 19 (1902): 1–32 [=1902b].

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*I regret not having been able to include discussion of this important commentary, which appeared after I had submitted my manuscript to the publisher.

INTRODUCTION

1. A Love Poem

The Song of Songs is a long lyric poem about erotic love and sexual desire—a poem in which the body is both object of desire and source of delight, and lovers engage in a continual game of seeking and finding in anticipation, enjoyment, and assurance of sensual gratification. A love poem. The poem’s genius lies in the way it shows us as well as tells us that love is strong as death (8:6), and in the way it explores the nature of love. It looks at what it is like to be in love from both a woman’s and a man’s point of view, and it relies exclusively on dialogue, so that we learn about love through what lovers say about it.

To me my lover is a sachet of myrrh,

lying all night between my breasts.

To me my lover is a cluster of henna blossoms

in the vineyards of En-gedi.

                    (1:13–14)

Rise up, my friend, my fair one,

and come away …

Let me see you,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and you are lovely.

(2:13–14)

You have captured my heart, my sister, bride,

you have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes,

with one pendant of your necklace.

                                                (4:9)

His form, like Lebanon,

distinguished as the cedars.

His mouth is sweet,

and all of him desirable.

This is my lover; this, my friend …

   (5:15–16)

Turn your eyes away from me,

for they overwhelm me.

  (6:5)

On my bed nightly,

I have sought my soul’s beloved.

I sought him but I did not find him.

I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek my soul’s beloved.

        (3:1–2)

I place you under oath, women of Jerusalem:

if you find my lover,

what will you tell him?

That I am faint with love.

                     (5:8)

Come, my love, let’s go out to the open field,

spend the night among the henna blossoms.

Let’s go early to the vineyards,

we’ll see if the vine has budded,

if the grape blossoms have opened,

if the pomegranates have bloomed.

There I will give you my love.

(7:11–12 [12–13 H])

Such, the Song proclaims, are the cadences of love.

But it is not just the lovers who speak. A third speaking voice belongs to a group, the women of Jerusalem, a kind of women’s chorus who function as an audience within the poem and whose presence facilitates the reader’s entry into the lovers’ intimate world of eroticism.

2. Love and Death

Only once does the poet offer an observation about the nature of love in general, and it is of the utmost importance for understanding the Song of Songs. Like everything else that is said in the poem, it appears in the mouth of one of the speakers (not as the voice of the poet) and it is addressed to another character in the poem (and not directly to the reader, though its readers are the poem’s ultimate audience).

Place me like a seal on your heart,

like a seal on your arm,

for love is strong as death …

       (8:6)

Here for the first time, the woman speaks to her lover not about their love, but about love itself. Though death is mentioned only once, and that near the poem’s end, everything in the poem converges upon and serves to illustrate the affirmation that love is as strong as death. The proof is the poem. Perhaps all literature is a defense against mortality; certainly the Song of Songs is. The desiring subject of Song 8:6 may be a character in the poem, but it is also the poet, whose desire to preserve a particular vision of love gives rise to the poem. Real lovers die, but the love that is celebrated here lives on, preserved on the page. It still seems fresh and alive centuries after it was written down, because it is love in progress, not a story about famous lovers of the past. The Song is too engrossed in how glorious it is to be alive and in love to voice bitterness or melancholy about death. Ever discovering their pleasure anew and ever rejoicing in each other and in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibility of the world around them, the textual lovers and the vision of love they embody live on so long as the poem is read.

3. Controlling Poetic Strategies

By controlling poetic strategies I refer to how the poetry of desire works, the tactics and techniques it employs, and the effects it produces; in other words, to the way the poet shows us, as well as tells us, that love is as strong as death. In poetry in general, and certainly in the Song, the medium is the message, as the saying goes. We cannot understand the Song, much less appreciate how it succeeds as a love poem, without paying attention to the way it presents its vision of love, to its emotional sequences in time and the accompanying shifts in technical management. Attention to the Song’s guiding poetic strategies, therefore, forms a major part of this commentary, and the reader is referred to the Commentary section (especially the general introduction to each section of the Song) for a fuller discussion of them in context. These codes of structure and meaning in the text belong to its translatable structure; that is to say, they are reproducible in English, unlike many of the Song’s other aesthetic features such as assonance, alliteration, and wordplay (see under A Masterpiece of Pure Poetry, pp. 30–33). Employed across the space of the poem, these manifold and interconnected strategies are the means by which the poet strives to make present, through language, what cannot be captured on the page: the lovers whose multiple identities enable them to stand for all lovers and, ultimately, love itself.

The Illusion of Immediacy

The most striking and successful way in which the Song of Songs immortalizes the love it celebrates is by creating the illusion of immediacy, the impression that, far from being simply reported, the action is taking place in the present, unfolding before the reader. It does this through the