In Our Own Eden: A Prince's Song To His Young Wife Poem by Yehoshua Shim'onai

This poem is another reflective work that I wrote for Song of Solomon, after 'Love & Purity.' It shows the beauty of sex within the boundaries of marriage, as God designed it to be.
'Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.'
- Hebrews 13: 4

1st Stanza:
This stanza echoes a passage in Song of Solomon which says,
'My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.'' (Ch.4 vv.10-14)
This stanza celebrates the beauty of marriage consummation.

2nd Stanza:
This stanza shows the carnal knowledge within marriage as normal and pleasing in God's eyes.
'And the man and his wife were BOTH NAKED and were NOT ASHAMED.' - Genesis 2: 25

3rd Stanza:
'Fresh wine' refers to the grape juice freshly squeezed from an ancient type of winery, the same wine into which Jesus turned some jars of water in Cana (see John 2: 7-10) . It is a wine that is sweet and not intoxicating. 'Tamed feline', on the other hand, refers to the gentle domestic cat whose affection to its owner is tender. 'Bosom, waist, and spine' figuratively refers to the female body parts by which a woman is sexually aroused when tenderly caressed. In this stanza, the prince is asking for his young wife's permission for him to kiss and touch her in a way that is pleasing to her. (See the note for the 6th Stanza)

4th Stanza:
a. (For the 1st and 2nd lines)
The word 'cleave' here has two meanings: one is 'to penetrate', the other is 'to attach.' In marriage, the husband should fulfill his loving promise to his wife to be 'faithful and true' to her. This means that he should promise his wife his full marital commitment to her, 'attaching' or binding himself to be faithful to her as her husband.
'My beloved is mine, and I am his.' - Song of Solomon 2: 16a
'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall CLEAVE unto his wife: and they SHALL BE ONE FLESH.' - Genesis 2: 24, KJV

b. (For the 3rd and 4th lines)
The Hebrew word 'Eden' means 'pleasure.' It also refers to the garden where God first placed Adam to take care of it. This means that it is one thing for a man to take pleasure from his wife's beauty, but another thing to take the responsibility of caring and nourishing her in the same way that a gardener takes care of his own garden.
'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and GAVE HIMSELF UP for her, that he might SANCTIFY HER, having CLEANSED her BY THE WASHING OF WATER with the word, so that he might PRESENT THE CHURCH TO HIMSELF IN SPLENDOR, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.' - Ephesians 5: 25-27

5th stanza:
This stanza echoes a passage in Song of Solomon which says,
'Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields
and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.' (Ch.7 vv.11-12)
This shows the pleasure of consummation of marriage in the same way that the Song of Solomon described it. This stanza shows the beauty of sex in the way that God made it in which it is to be done only within the boundaries of marriage.

6th Stanza:
This stanza shows the prince's desire to love and please his princess. It gives an important lesson to the married Christian men to be loving and caring to their wives, considering their feelings and the things that pleases them, especially in their most intimate moments.
'Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, SHOWING HONOR TO the woman as the WEAKER VESSEL, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.' - 1 Peter 3: 7

7th Stanza
'Eden' here refers to the pleasure of married life, as God designed it to be.
'ENJOY LIFE with the WIFE whom YOU LOVE, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.' - Ecclesiastes 9: 9

[Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) , copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphases added are made by this note's author]