Song of Solomon2chapter 2

The spring passage is a calendar, not a mood. "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone" — the rains in that country run from roughly October to March and then stop entirely. "The flowers appear on the earth" — the hills go green and covered in anemones and cyclamen for a few short weeks. "The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land" — the turtledove is a migrant that arrives in spring, so its call was the recognised signal that the season had turned.

"The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell." Fig trees in that region put out an early crop of small green fruit before the leaves are full, and grape blossom has a faint sweet scent that carries on warm air. Both are April sights and smells.

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines." This is a real pest problem. Foxes and jackals dig under vineyard walls, eat ripening grapes, and break down young vines; keeping them out was part of the work of a vineyard keeper, which is what she was in chapter one.

"He brought me to the banqueting house" is literally "the house of wine" — the hall where a feast was held. "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples" asks for raisin cakes and fruit, the food handed to someone faint at a celebration.

"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock" describes rock doves nesting in cliff crevices, safe and out of reach — an image of someone hidden away who is being coaxed to come out.