Charles Ellicott Commentary Song Of Solomon 5:2

"I was asleep, but my heart waked: It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [saying], Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night." — Song Of Solomon 5:2 (ASV)

I sleep. —This begins the old story under an image already employed (Song of Solomon 3:1). Here it is greatly amplified and elaborated.

The poet pictures his lady dreaming of him, and when he seems to visit her, anxious to admit him. But, as is so common in dreams, at first she cannot. The realities which had hindered their union reappear in the fancies of sleep.

Then, when the seeming hindrance is withdrawn, she finds him gone and, as before, searches for him in vain. This gives opportunity to introduce the description of the charms of the lost lover, and so the end of the piece, the union of the pair, is delayed to Song of Solomon 6:3.

My head is filled with dew. —Anacreon, iii.10 is often compared to this.

“‘Fear not,’ said he, with piteous din,
‘Pray open the door and let me in.
A poor unsheltered boy am I,
For help who knows not where to fly:
Lost in the dark, and with the dews,
All cold and wet, that midnight brews.’”

(Compare also Propertius I.16-23; Ovid, Amores II.19-21.)