Springtime Rhapsody Poem Analysis

INTRODUCTION John Keats has once said, “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” Song 2:8-17 renders a beautiful poem as timeless as the “poetry of the earth.” Imaginative readers can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch earth’s beauty. The passage speaks about the voice of spring where all of creation celebrates and is celebrated as it displays a beautiful symphony just by being what they have been created for. NRSV call this pericope “Springtime Rhapsody.” Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), the most celebrated German musician of the 18th century composed a most sublime music inspired by the Song, particularly by this poem where in the first recitative, a tenor acting as narrator warns the daughters of Zion of the approaching bridegroom, leaping upon the hills like a young stag. “Cantata BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die …show more content…
This does not necessarily mean authorship, but recognizing the wisdom imparted by the Song about living wisely, that which parallels Solomon’s wisdom, the wisest king who ever lived in ancient Israel. Moreover, the final form of the Song reflects a wisdom genre with two kinds of refrains strategically placed within the Song: one that adjures the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken love before its proper time ((2:7; 3:5; 5:8 and 8:4)) and another that affirms exclusivity of love (I am my beloved and I am his (2:16; 6:3; and 7:11). The adjuration refrain is right before the periscope (2:7) and second refrain is within the periscope (2:16). Apart from imparting wisdom about affairs of the heart, the passage also implicitly imparts wisdom on what it means to live a significant and fulfilling life. Human life must be understood and lived in relation to harmony and in communion with nature and other life