4:1–15 · The king’s rehearsal of the maiden’s beauty and his invitations to love constitute this longest single unit in the poem. The first half of the passage is a descriptive song with highly figurative language and is bounded by the inclusio, “How beautiful you are, my darling” (4:1, 7). The descriptive song mixes pastoral, domestic, and urban images common in ancient love poetry (e.g., myrrh, lilies, pomegranates, etc.). The language of the love poem now becomes increasingly erotic and explicit. The import of the descriptive song is the maiden’s flawless beauty from head to toe (literally, from eyes [4:1] to breasts [4:5]); she mirrors the beauty, freshness, and innocence of the natural world and the strength and elegance of the manmade world. The phrases “mountain of myrrh” and “hill…