SONG OF SONGS AND LUST
Uploaded by JithendraWij on Jun 11, 2008
“Song of Songs”
The “Song of Songs” uses metaphors and imagery to convey the meaning of perfect love between a man and a woman. The opening verse of the fourth song shows the love being so great that the woman dreamt of the man while she slept and her heart laid awake thinking of him and missing his presence. This perfect love sees a more sexual face of love. The sexual entity in both stories is the only concept that is similar when measuring up the two.
The women of Jerusalem are called upon as a third party and are the only source of distraction to the love that is expressed in the poem. There is absolutely no disruption from an external cause in “Lust” with the breaking up of relationships occurring due to the main character being unable to be committed. Allegory, an interaction to explain the unknown by the presentation of the known, is a key feature.
There is a context for reality. The writer calls upon fig trees and alabaster and these examples could be balanced with Sri-Lankan poetry where coconut trees are employed as symbols. The reader has to move into that particular era to understand how it is real because archetypal images are brought into play. On the other hand, “Lust” is a relatively modern work and can be easily comprehended by the readers of these times.
At the same time, there is a nagging feeling that there is something unreal about the love displayed in the “Song of Songs”. There is a show of perfect love in it and it is ironic as ideal love cannot be defined. Faultless love is that of God’s love for man or Christ’s affection for man and it is hard to put into the context of the feeling that exists between man and woman. There is no such thing in “Lust”. The “Song of Songs” has a soft and flowing sensation and it gives the impression that there is no conflict whatsoever.
“Lust”
In the “Song of Songs”, there was a sense of yielding that flowed well without a clash, but “Lust” is a totally dissimilar take. Here is a case about a young woman trying to find emotional love and it explains the...