How do longing and mutual praise shape the opening song?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The speaker longs to be drawn close to her beloved. She describes herself as dark but beautiful, asks where to find him, and exchanges praise with him. Challoner reads their love as an image of Christ and the Church.

Chapter breakdown

The speaker asks for kisses and praises love, sweet ointments, and a name like poured oil. She asks to be drawn close and recalls being brought into the king’s storerooms. Challoner interprets the spouse as the Church, the maidens as faithful souls, and the act of drawing as Christ’s grace. He explains the storerooms as the mysteries of faith, first shown through Moses and then through Jesus Christ.

Before Jerusalem’s daughters, she calls herself dark but beautiful. The sun has changed her color. Her mother’s sons have fought against her and made her tend vineyards, while she has not kept her own. She asks where her beloved feeds his flock and rests at midday. The reply tells her to follow the flocks and feed her young goats beside the shepherds’ tents. Challoner reads this reply as Christ encouraging the Church and describes the horsemen in the next verse as protecting angels.

The lovers exchange praise through the images of horsemen in Pharao’s chariots, turtledoves, jewels, and gold chains inlaid with silver. While the king rests, her spikenard gives off its scent. She compares the beloved to myrrh and a cluster of cypress in Engaddi. Praise of dove-like eyes leads to a flourishing bed and a house with cedar beams and cypress rafters. Challoner reads her outward darkness and inward beauty as the afflicted Church’s beauty in teaching and conduct.

The story inside

The song begins with a wish for kisses and closeness. The speaker then tells Jerusalem’s daughters about the sun and the vineyards she has tended. Her search turns into an exchange of praise: perfume, jewels, dove-like eyes, and a flourishing bed give the love a rich setting.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The speaker calls herself beautiful even while explaining how the sun has darkened her skin (1:4–5).
2
Her request to be drawn close is a request for help. Challoner explains it as the need for Christ’s grace in his note on 1:3.
3
The lovers praise one another through scents, animals, trees, and precious materials (1:8–16).

Test your recall

Why does the speaker say that she is dark, and what does she ask her beloved to show her?

Show answer

The sun has changed her color, and her mother’s sons have made her tend vineyards while she has not kept her own. She asks where her beloved feeds his flock and rests at midday, so that she will not wander among his companions’ flocks (1:5–6).

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 71002–71005
1:3. Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee.
Lines 71015–71016
1:4. I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Lines 71031–71033
1:7. If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.