SOURCE: "Lecture XXX: The Song of Solomon not a Regular Drama" and "Lecture XXXI: Of the Subject and Style of Solomon's Song," in Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Vol. II, 1787. Reprint by Garland Publishing, Inc., 1971, pp. 287-308, 309-44.

In the following lectures, Lowth considers the Song of Songs as a form of dramatic poetry and suggests, after consideration of other Hebrew poetry, that the work should be read allegorically.

Thus much with suffice for that inferior species of Dramatic Poetry, or rather that Dramatic form which may be assumed by any species of poem. The more perfect and regular Drama, that I mean which consists of a plot or fable, will demand a more elaborate investigation.

There are only two poems extant among the writings of the Hebrews which can, on the present occasion, at all be brought into question, the Song of Solomon, and...