Song of Songs

The bride speaks first. The bride speaks most. The bride initiates. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. The only full-length love poem in scripture is voiced primarily by a woman.

The Song of Songs is canonically attributed to Solomon but is built as a dialogue, with the majority of the lines in the female voice. She opens the poem; she initiates desire; she searches the city at night for her lover; she boasts of his beauty. The mutuality formula I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine (2:16; 6:3) is one of the book's refrains, and is syntactically balanced — neither owes possession or initiative to the other. The book's presence in the canon is itself remarkable: no law, no covenant, no kingdom, no divine name. Only mutual desire, mostly from her.