Meet the Bride
- First impressions count. And right off the bat, the bride tells us (her audience), "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!" In our world, this would be the equivalent of starting out a movie with a sex scene. What does this first passage tell us? Yep. We're in the land of lovers.
- The bride then gives us a bunch of gory details about her status, her love for the groom, and her family life.
- In a nutshell, she loves this guy because the way she feels "is better than wine" (1:2). It's so intoxicating that she needs to describe it using some fancy metaphors, like describing it as "perfume."
- The bride describes herself, too. Apparently she's "black and beautiful." And immodest, apparently.
- So wait, is she of African descent? Or is something else going on here? Head on over to our analysis of the bride (the Shulamite) in the "Figures" section for more on that.
- As it turns out, the bride's brothers—seemingly because of her new ideas about love—are not happy with her.
- Did you think that Shakespeare invented the idea of families not being cool with certain matches? Not so much.