The Song’s Imagery

Commentators often resort to some embarrassing expedients in trying to explain the bodily imagery of the Song of Songs.  The assumption is that the images are mainly visual.  Breasts are like fawns grazing among the lilies?  Well, the fawns must be bent over, their backs rounded and their little tails sticking erect like nipples.

Exum wisely demurs.  The point is not to describe either lover visually but “to convey to the reader the emotions the speaker experiences upon beholding the loved one.”  The metaphors, she goes on to suggest, are also part of a process of distancing and construction, a process that gives non-exchangeable meaning to each body part.  The different descriptions also reveal sexual ideals: The man, described in third-person by the woman, is statue-like, hard, made of stone and metal; the woman is soft, organic, full of fragrance and fruit.  In any case, it’s the associations of the imagery, not primarily or only their visual appearance, that’s important.