Wedding Poem after Song of Solomon

Cecil Buller Embrace, from Song of Solomon, 1929

 

Wood engraving 1929

  Art Institute Chicago

Wedding Song after Solomon

by Mary Stromer Hanson

Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone, 

Take my hand on this path unknown. 

Cleaving forever to you alone, 

And leave my mother and father’s home. 

Blessed with sweet wine and the honeycomb, 

Our bed is green as in Solomon’s poem. 

Together we go to a place of our own, 

And find there our own sweet shalom. 

 I give to you, you give to me, 

Such is God’s plan since Adam and Eve. 

Man and Woman, together they lead, 

Ruling the earth by God’s decree, 

Mirrored in God’s image equally. 

When the time comes that we disagree, 

Patience and prayer, that is the key. 

May Christ be the head of this family. 

Wind and rain, rock and flame, 

 Yes, we are different, but also the same. 

When you are strong, that is my gain, 

If I am weak, that is your pain. 

With God’s blessing, peace does reign, 

Sin and sorrow which Christ overcame. 

All that is old has passed away, 

Together our crown we do reclaim.