I went down into the garden of nuts,
     To see the green plants of the valley,
     To see whether the vine budded,
     And the pomegranates were in flower,
     Or ever I was aware, my soul [desire] set me
     Among the chariots of my princely people.

She also explains why her face is tanned like the dark tents of Kedar:  “My mother’s sons were incensed against me, They made me keeper of the vineyards.”  The added words “mine own vineyard have I not kept” are interpreted by some as an apology for her neglected personal appearance, but Renan (10) more plausibly refers them to her consciousness of some indiscretion, which led to her capture.  We may suppose that, attracted by the glitter and the splendor of the royal cavalcade, she for a moment longed to enjoy it, and her desire was gratified.  Brought to court to comfort the old king, she remained after his death at the palace, and Solomon, who wished to add her to his harem, killed his own brother when he found him coveting her.  The maiden soon regrets her indiscretion in having exposed herself to capture.  She is “a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley,” and she feels like a wildflower transplanted to a palace hall.  While Solomon in all his glory urges his suit, she, tormented by homesickness, thinks only of her vineyard, her orchards, and the young shepherd whose love she enjoyed in them.  Absent-minded, as one in a revery, or dreaming aloud, she answers the addresses of the king and his women in words that ever refer to her shepherd lover:[289]

“Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest thy flock.”  “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of En-gedi.”  “Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant:  Also our couch is green.”  “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.  I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”  “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”  “My beloved is mine, and I am his:  He feedeth his flock among the lilies,” “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages.  Let us get up early to the vineyards....  There will I give thee my love.”

The home-sick country girl, in a word, has found out that the splendors of the palace are not to her taste, and the thought of being a young shepherd’s darling is pleasanter to her than that of being an old king’s concubine.  The polygamous rapture with which Solomon addresses her:  “There are three-score queens and four-score concubines, and maidens without number,” does not appeal to her rural taste.  She has no desire to be the hundred and forty-first piece of mosaic inlaid in Solomon’s palanquin (III., 9-10), and she stubbornly resists his advances until, impressed by her firmness, and unwilling to force her, the king allows her to return to her vineyard and her lover.