SOURCE: An introduction in Song of Songs, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977, pp. 17-229.

In the following essay, Pope contends that the emphasis in the Song of Songs on expressions of love might link the work to the occasion of a funeral feast.

Love And Death

It has been recognized by many commentators that the setting of Love and Passion in opposition to the power of Death and Hell in 8:6c,d is the climax of the Canticle and the burden of its message: that Love is the only power that can cope with Death. Throughout the Song the joys of physical love are asserted, but this singular mention of Death and his domain, Sheol, suggests that this fear may be the covert concern of the Canticle, the response to inexorable human fate with the assertion of Love as the only power that frustrates the complete victory of Death. The...