The Song of Songs is a long lyric poem about erotic love and sexual desire—a poem in which the body is both object of desire and source of delight, and lovers engage in a continual game of seeking and finding in anticipation, enjoyment, and assurance of sensual gratification. A love poem. The poem’s genius lies in the way it shows us as well as tells us that “love is strong as death” (8:6), and in the way it explores the nature of love. It looks at what it is like to be