>By "didactic" I mean "written in order to provide
>moral instruction." You're right about the SoS,
>assuming we take it as a love poem and not as an
>allegory of the relationship between man and
>God/Church.
>
It's possible, gasp, to take it as both. In the fuzzy world of
literature/poetry/analysis, things can mean more than one thing:)
Middle eastern mystical poetry often uses the trope of beloved addressing beloved as a representation of man's relationship to God. Think of Rumi. In the West, think of Herbert (but not Donne).
Joanna
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