On what basis do I justify the claim that there are multiple layers of author-intended meaning in this Song? At least three reasons establish the warrant for these conclusions: First, we are dealing with poetry, and poetry is by nature deliberately evocative and suggestive. Second, biblical authors who wrote before and after Solomon produced material intended to function in ways that correspond to what I am arguing Solomon intended in the Song.15 Third, from what Paul says about marriage in Ephesians