Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-04-18
THE SONG OF SONGS.

| THE SONG OF SONGS.
The Meaning of This Noted Biblical
Poem.-A Scripturai Love story.
Ellice Hopkins, in an article in the
Centuyon the "Song of Songs" which
is Solomon's says: 1t has been re-
served for modern ITcbrdists to restore
this lovely little epithalamium to its
proper place, and, scraping away the
accumulated whtewash and plaster of
ages,-the mistranslationS and misun-
derstandings of centuries to reveal it
as it is, an exquisite little shrine of the
affections, embedded in the very heart
of our Bibles, anush with passionate
color, but pure and chaste and endur-
ing as sculptured marble. The plot or
argument of the poem is this: King
Solomon on one of his numerous
pleasure excursions, accompanied, as
usual, by his court, is passing through
the north of his kingdom,-a land rich
in Vineyards; and fair pastoral beauty
when they perceive, in ncighbor.
ing nut-gardcn, Il beautiful girl, sing.
ing and dancing to herself in the joy
of the spring.
She has come down to the garden to
look at the tender opening buds, and
in the gladncss of her own opening
life and the happiness of first love she
has thrown aside her veil, and is sing.
ing with the birds and dancing with
the dancing lights. They watch her,
lost in admiration, when, suddenly
pcrceiving that she is observed, she
makes shy movement of flight,
arrested for a moment by the entreat-
ing voices with which they call her
back. The king, at once deeply
cnamorcR of the beautiful stranger.
leaves orders that she shall be trans
ferrcd to his harcm her dress denoting
that she was unmarried and I'M
plightcd. On inquiry it is found that
the maiden--the Sulammitr, as she
is called throughout the poem, from
her native village Sulcm-is the only
daughter of her mother. Her father
is dead, and hct step brothers, the sons
of former marriage, exercise his
authority in his stead. They treat her
with great harSlncss. and make her
the keeper of one of their vineyards.
There she meets with young shep-
herd and keeper of gardens like her
self, on whom she pours ont her "for-
gotten heart "a love which he re-
turns, but without as yet. having
gained the consent of the brothers to
their betrotlal. They, on the con.
trary, very much prefer the advanta-
geous offer of the king. and she is at
once transferred to the harem at Jer,t
salem. There the great king woos the
simple village maiden, and she has to
endure every seduction that wealth
and luxury and rank can bring to bear
upon her But she remains faithful
to her shepherd-lover, preferring true
love to worldly advancement. Finding
her obdurate, the king at last resolves
to pay her the highest honor of all.
lie resolves to marry her and make
her one of his queens; but with no
better result. His advances are
always stopped by her fainting away
with the despairing cry on her lips:
my beloved is mine, and | am his"
Till at length, since the worship of
Jehovah puts bounds'tO even the pas
sions of Il king and forbils the use Of
violence, he suffers her to depart to
her shepherd-lover. The poem ends
in the gardens of the north, with the
reunion of the lovers and their APP
preaching marriage, and with the
great unveiled utterance and keynote
of the poem, love is as strong as
death" and "many waters (evcn the
deep waters of trial through which the
Sulammite had passed) "cannot drown
it," followed by little mirthful song
of triumph on her part, and knocking
allusion to the failure of the great
king to bride her from her faithful
ness.
With regard to the approximate age
of the poem, the data are more salts.
factory, The poem itself is sufficient
to prove that it was not written by
Solomon. The great king would GER
tainly not have satirized himself so
severely