I Belong to My Beloved

Read aloud

The man continues his praise, beginning with the woman's feet in sandals and moving upward through her body. He speaks of jewels, a master's handiwork, a mound of wheat, a tower of ivory, pools of water, Mount Carmel, and purple threads. The language is openly physical and intentionally poetic. It is the voice of a lover delighting in the person he sees.

The poem does not apologize for the body. It also does not make the woman a body without a voice. The description reaches its height when the man calls her fair and pleasant, then compares her stature to a palm tree and her breasts to clusters of fruit. The images are sensuous, but they are held inside an established relationship in which admiration has been mutual from the beginning.

He says he will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit. The line is intimate, and it should not be turned into a general permission to take whatever one desires. The surrounding poem matters. The woman has already spoken of belonging, and she will soon say that his desire is for her. Desire here belongs to a relationship, not to entitlement.

The woman then speaks for herself. She says she belongs to her beloved and that his desire is for her. The sentence is brief but important. She is not merely the object of his attention. She knows the relationship, names her own belonging, and receives his desire as something directed toward her.

The passage includes both his longing and her reply. Their physical affection belongs to a relationship in which both speak. Reading the words together helps us hear delight between two people who belong to one another, rather than a list of features for strangers to judge.