The Message of the Song of Songs - Paperbackby Tom Gledhill (Author) At first reading, the Song of Songs appears to be an unabashed celebration of physical attraction, mutual love, and sexual consummation between a man and a woman. Tom Gledhill maintains that the Song of Songs is in fact just that a literary, poetic exploration of human love that strongly affirms loyalty, beauty, and sexuality. Yet in God's story, these things are not ends in themselves. They are also transcendental longings,