Dan Lukiv

The Song of Songs, poetry Dan Lukiv

Introduction // The Song of Solomon draws us into a story of loyal love between a Shulammite maiden and a shepherd boy. As in any dramatic story that explores the decisions of the heroine (protagonist), the antagonist creates conflict. Solomon, husband of 60 wives and 80 concubines, a poet and an influential king, a man who knows how to use words to flatter and woo women, plays that role as the city-bred antagonist bent on marrying the beautiful virgin girl from rural Shunem, or Shulem. // Will the shepherd boy lose his loved one as another trophy wife for this immodest king? Will the Shulammite heroine reject the flattery of a great king? Will she make decisions based on her love for this shepherd? Likely the reader knows the answers. But he or she may not know that the unbreakable loyal love of this young, humble couple foreshadows an even greater love between Christ and his "bride," his congregation of anointed Christians (Revelation 21:2, 9). // An excerpt // toothless, the skipper / says, "think she's gonna wait fer / a lunkhead like you?"