The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

3o THE SONG OF SOLOMON
beloved ? ^ This mocking question of the harem women
rouses the Shulammite, and affords an opportunity for
descanting on the beauty of her love.^ He is both fair
and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. For this
is what he is hke : a head splendid as finest gold ;
massive, curling, raven locks ; eyes like doves by water
brooks, and looking as though they had been washed
in milk—an elaborate image in which the soft iris and
the sparkling light on the pupils suggest the picture
of the gentle birds brooding on the bank of a flashing
stream, and the pure, healthy eyeballs a thought of the
whiteness of milk ; cheeks fragrant as spices ; hps
red as lilies (the blood-red anemones) ; a body like
ivory, with blue veins as of sapphire ; legs like marble
columns on golden bases. The aspect of him is like
great Lebanon, splendid as the far-famed cedars; and
when he opens his lips his voice is ravishingly sweet.
Yes, he is altogether lovely. Such is her beloved, her
dearest one.
The mocking ladies ask their victim where then has
this paragon gone ? ^ She would have them under-
stand that he has not been so cruel as really to desert
her. It was only in her dream that he treated her"
with such unaccountable fickleness. The plain fact is
that he is away at his work on his far-off farm, feeding
his flock, and perhaps gathering a posy of flowers
for his bride.* He is far away,— that sad truth cannot
be denied ; and yet he is not really lost, for love laughs
at time and distance ; the poor lonely girl can say still
that she is her beloved's and that he is hers.*^ The
reappearance of this phrase suggests that it is intended
V. 9,
V. 10-16. * vi. 2.
' vi. I. " vi. 3.